Hyderabad, May 18 (IANS): Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday decided to extend the lockdown in the state up to May 30.

He took the decision after speaking to ministers over the phone and eliciting their opinion, according to a statement from Chief Minister's Office.

The CM instructed Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar to issue a Government Order on the extension of the lockdown.

The state Cabinet was scheduled to meet on May 20 to take a decision on extending the lockdown. However, as the ministers are busy monitoring Covid curtailment measures and medical services at the field level, the Chief Minister cancelled the Cabinet meeting.

The 10-day lockdown in the state came into effect on May 12 to contain the spread of Covid-19.

The government has given four-hour relaxation for all the activities from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily.

The state government, which imposed night curfew on May 23, had earlier ruled out imposing partial or total lockdown, saying the measure would be of not much help in containing the surge. It had also claimed that the situation in the state is totally under control and in fact, a downward trend started in new Covid cases.

Last week, the Chief Minister had stated such a move would bring the life to a standstill and would lead to total collapse of the economy. However, with the pressure mounting on the government to take strict measures to check the spread of Covid, the government finally decided to impose the lockdown.