NEW DELHI:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to extend a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus, the chief minister of Delhi said on Saturday, without saying how long the extension would be for.
Modi earlier in the day held a video conference call with several state ministers.Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Modi had “taken (a) correct decision to extend (the) lockdown”, without sharing further details.
Talking about the exit plan, the PM said that there seems to be a consensus among the states on extending the lockdown by another two weeks.
PM emphasized the criticality of the coming 3-4 weeks for determining the impact of the steps taken till now to contain the virus.
After attending Modi's interaction with chief ministers, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said the second phase of the two-week lockdown would not be the same as the ongoing three-week one, which entered its 18th day and was originally scheduled to last until April 14.
Modi is likely to give a televised address to the nation again to announce the lockdown extension. At the end of the four-hour meet today, PM Modi said he will allow industries and construction work to reopen in a graded manner. Other restrictions are also likely to be eased in a graded manner and another economic package for farmers is expected.
Sources indicated that this was a calibrated evolution in the strategy in dealing with Covid-19. Guidelines to be issued on the extended lockdown through the PM’s address by Monday may see some relaxations.
Guidelines to be issued on the extended lockdown through the PM’s address by Monday may see some relaxations.
PM suggested dividing areas into red, orange and green zones to allow starting small industries in the latter two zones through a “lock-in” strategy where workers in limited strength would work inside factories with social distancing and sleep inside the unit at night. The red zone will be one with the hotspots and maximum cases while orange zone will be those where people are under surveillance and green zone which has negligible cases.
Separately, sources said all central ministers have been asked to resume office from Monday and put together plans for post-lockdown period to kick-start the economy. All ministries have also been directed that joint secretary and above rank officers will resume work in respective departments and one-third of the essential staff members in every ministry need to be present.
While government officials said guidelines for the second phase of lockdown would be announced in next few days, the Union Health Ministry said testing and treatment infrastructures were being augmented on a daily basis and asserted that the number of confirmed cases could have reached 8.2 lakh by April 15 in the absence of a lockdown and other containment measures.
“If it is stopped now, all gains would be lost. To consolidate, it is imp (important) to extend it,” Kejriwal said on Twitter.
However, Modi also marked a shift in tackling the pandemic, from saving lives to saving both lives and the economy. Three weeks ago, while announcing the lockdown, PM Modi had said, "Jaan hai toh jahaan hai (the world exists if life exists)." Towards the end of the meeting today, however, he stressed on "Jaan bhi jahaan bhi (both life and economy are important)" as the lockdown has put severe stress on businesses.
Emphasising on the importance of the recently launched 'Aarogya Setu' tracking application by the government to combat spread of novel coronavirus outbreak in India, prime minister Narendra Modi said that the tracking app is an essential tool in Covid-19 fight and is possible to use it as an e-pass to facilitate travel from one place to another.
He referred to how South Korea and Singapore got success in contact tracing. Based on those experiences, India has made its own effort through the app which will be an essential tool in India’s fight against the pandemic, he said. He also referred to the possibility of the app being an e-pass which could subsequently facilitate travel from one place to another.
With continuous spike in COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra government on Saturday decided to extend the ongoing lockdown till April 30..
Making the announcement, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that the lockdown can be relaxed in certain areas while on others it will become stricter.He also said that the decision on lifting the curbs completely after April 30 will be taken depending upon the prevailing situation.
India’s 21-day lockdown ends on Tuesday but several states had urged Modi to extend it further, even as concerns have risen that the shutdown has put millions of poor people out of work and forced an exodus of migrant workers from cities to villages.
The highly infectious COVID-19 has killed 239 people in the country, with 40 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours. The total number of positive coronavirus cases is now 7,447.
The highest number of cases has been reported from Maharashtra, with 1,574 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus that was first detected in China in December.
Without lockdown, cases would be exceeding 8.2L
“Assuming 41 per cent cumulative growth rate, India, in a no-lockdown situation would have witnessed 8.2 lakh Covid-19 cases by April 15,” said Health Ministry spokesman Lav Agarwal after CMs of most states today urged PM Narendra Modi to extend the ongoing lockdown by at least two weeks.
In the second projected scenario of India going in for mass containment efforts, but no lockdown, the government estimated to see 1.2 lakh Covid-19 cases by April 15.
“In the pre-lockdown stage, we saw the highest cumulative growth rate of 28.9 per cent. At this growth rate, we would have seen 1.2 lakh cases by April 15 had we only gone in only for containment without national lockdown,” Lav Agarwal said.
The rate of Covid infections in India had begun to rise dramatically in the pre-lockdown days with the PM deciding to announce a Janata Curfew on March 22 followed by a 21-day national lockdown from March 24.
Post the lockdown, rate of infections largely remained stable between 11 and 17 per cent until last Sunday when a cluster in Delhi’s Nizamuddin suddenly spiked the disease burden nationally with contact tracing of the cluster’s primary patient’s still underway.
India has so far built 586 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals across states with one lakh isolation bed strength and 11,500 ICU beds. “This capacity is being augmented,” said the government.