In his much-awaited address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that the country will remain in coronavirus lockdown for another 19 days till May 3. Strict lockdown will be enforced till April 20 followed by graded relaxations.
In a national address on Tuesday, he said that only by respecting the confinement rules would the battle against Covid-19 be won.
Thanking the people for cooperating with the government’s complete lockdown so far, he appealed to the people to stay at home and keep social distancing. He said lockdown is the only answer at the moment and social distancing will help stop the spread of virus. “Foreign countries could not gauge the seriousness of the problem which led to the spread of this disease. However, India sensed the gravity of the problem even before the country reported a single case. The government had immediately cancelled all the international flights. As the country reported 100 cases of corona, the government had made 14-day isolation mandatory. “The government took the tough decision of complete lockdown when the country reported 550 cases,” Modi said in his address to the nation.
Prime Minister observed that the combined effort of the Centre and the states have helped reduce the impact of corona virus but since the situation is rapidly evolving, constant vigilance is paramount. He emphasized the criticality of coming three to four weeks for determining the impact of the steps taken till now to contain the virus, adding that teamwork is the key to facing the challenge. “Your sacrifice has helped us fight this battle. You went through the pain to fight this. Indians made a lot of sacrifice even in this season of festivals. The spirit should continue for some more weeks.
He asked people to follow the 7 simple do’s and don’t s – “Look after the elderly in your house, take measures to boost immunity, don’t cross lockdown Lakshmana Rekha, download ‘Aarogya Setu’ app, don’t lay off and show compassion to employees, respect and honour covid warriors such as doctors, nurses, safai karamcharis and the police, help the needy. These are the ways to win this battle against the virus. Let us do this together till May 3. Stay where you are, safe and healthy,” he said
