Houses after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation announcing further extension of lockdown to May 3, TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said he spoke to the PM an hour before his video message proposing certain measures to contain the spread of the corona virus.
Of the measures, Naidu said he had proposed ‘Saptapati’ (7 steps) to stymie the spread of Covid-19 similar to the steps the Prime Minister had listed out in his address to the nation such as ‘care for elders, social distancing, help needy’ etc. Addressing a press conference, Naidu said he had also proposed to the Prime Minister that the country has to be divided in three zones – Red, Orange and Green. In places declared as Red zones, there should be no activity whatsoever and that restrictions should be imposed on the movement of people or goods from green zones to red or orange zones. “There should be no activity in places identified as red zones with sizeable number of cases. People from red zones should not be permitted to travel to green zones and vice-versa,” Naidu said.
With the state nearing the 500-mark in positive cases, Naidu said the government is not testing enough to beat the deadly virus. The question is whether Andhra Pradesh will expand its testing protocol to cover those who are symptomatic of Covid-19 but do not have a travel history or have not been zeroed in on through contact tracing, Naidu asked. Further, he gave a piece of his mind to Jagan that his administration should focus on fighting corona than fighting the elections. “You all have witnessed the things that have happened in the last two or three days. The new election commissioner said get ready for elections. Is this the time to talk about elections,” he asked.
In a snub to the Jagan’s move of lockdown only in red zones, the Prime Minister on Tuesday announced further extension of lockdown till May 3. The Prime Minister said strict enforcement of complete lockdown till April 20. However, there could be some relaxations post April 20.
