Responding to the coronavirus outbreak, the government of India ordered a nationwide lockdown on March 24, closing down businesses and limiting the movements of more than 1.3 billion people. Originally planned to last 21 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced that the lockdown would be extended until May 3, with a few exceptions. Since the outbreak began, India has reported 21,700 confirmed cases and 686 deaths. The lockdown has exacted severe tolls on India’s poor and marginalized communities and its many migrant workers. Collected below, scenes from around India during this pandemic.
India Under Coronavirus Lockdown
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Health-care workers enter a residential area of Mumbai, India, on April 20, 2020, to check on people living there during a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. #
Francis Mascarenhas / Reuters -
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A health worker scans a resident with an infrared thermometer to check her temperature as a precautionary measure in a residential area of New Delhi on April 20, 2020. #
Adnan Abidi / Reuters -
A man shows his hand, which was stamped by a doctor advising home quarantine after a swab was taken from him to test for the coronavirus, in Mumbai on April 8, 2020. #
Prashant Waydande / Reuters -
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Migrant workers eat their dinner inside a shopping mall turned shelter in Ahmedabad on April 7, 2020, during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus. #
Amit Dave / Reuters -
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A doctor in a protective chamber takes a swab from a man to test for the coronavirus at a newly installed walk-in sample kiosk in a government-run hospital in Chennai on April 13, 2020. #
P. Ravikumar / Reuters -
Traders stand inside a pen as they wait to purchase vegetables and fruits at the Agricultural Produce Market Committee market during a government-imposed lockdown in Navi Mumbai on April 20, 2020. #
Indranil Mukherjee / AFP / Getty -
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Plainclothes policemen wield their batons against a man for defying the lockdown imposed by the government in Howrah, on the outskirts of Kolkata, on April 19, 2020. #
Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters -
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Staff members of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation watch large screens to monitor the movement of people on the roads, inside a "war room" focused on halting the spread of the coronavirus in Mumbai on April 10, 2020. #
Francis Mascarenhas / Reuters -
Indian fishermen, who said they were refused entry at two ports after a nationwide lockdown was imposed, travel in the Arabian Sea, attempting to reach their home state of Maharashtra, on April 17, 2020. #
Prashant Waydande / Reuters -
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In this picture taken on April 5, 2020, in Pune, hotel rooms with their lights switched on form the word hope on the building's facade during a nine-minute vigil called by India's prime minister. People across the country lit candles and turned on their mobile-phone lights on their balconies and in their homes, in a show of unity and solidarity in the fight against the coronavirus. #
Sanket Wankhade / AFP / Getty -
People in need wait for their turn to collect free rations and groceries distributed by the Karnataka state congress in Bangalore on April 21, 2020, during the nationwide lockdown. #
Manjunath Kiran / AFP / Getty -
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A local Gaddi shepherd sits with his flock at a temporary shelter in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh state, India, on April 19, 2020, against a backdrop of the snow-covered Dhauladhar range of the Himalayas. The Gaddis, which remain mobile most of the year, taking their flocks to green pastures, were given special passes to move during the lockdown in the state. #
Ashwini Bhatia / AP -
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Staff members of a hospital in Kolkata, India, carry candles and oil lamps to show solidarity with people affected by the coronavirus, and with doctors, nurses, and other health-care workers from all over the world, on April 5, 2020. #
Rupak De Chowdhuri / Reuters
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