With a sudden spike in the number of coronavirus cases in India in the last four days, the government could have a rethink over lifting the nationwide 21-day lockdown imposed from the midnight of March 25. Sources said that the Centre may decide to switch to a partial lockdown or merely ease the strict restrictions after April 14 till the end of the month.

Earlier, the government had said that there was no plan to extend the lockdown, which had brought the economy to a near standstill.

Since April 2, national carrier Air India stopped taking flight bookings till the end of the month.

Sources added that the government could move to opening up clusters and areas which have reported no COVID-19 cases from April 14 but there was little chance of lifting it completely as it might lead to an aggressive spread of the deadly disease.

The sudden rise in the number of COVID-19 cases has been traced to the massive gathering held by Tablighi Jamaat on March 13-15 in Delhi.

Meanwhile the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have put in place several measures to fight the severe economic implications arising out of the spread of the disease. A Rs 1.7 lakh crore package under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana has already been announced for the poor.

The RBI measures including reduction of cash reserve ratio—the proportion of deposits banks have to mandatorily park with the central bank—will inject an additional amount of Rs 3.74 lakh crore into the system.

The number of coronavirus cases in India has risen to above 3,000 and experts said that this could rise exponentially in the coming days if adequate precautionary measures are not taken.

The lockdown has already led to massive job losses and salary cuts.

Many countries including Singapore moved to a nationwide lockdown to break the chain of transmission of the contagious disease..