Coronavirus: Modi puts all of India under total lockdown for 21 days to fight coronavirus
- ‘There will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes,’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a televised address
- India has so far reported 482 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and nine deaths
India’s 1.3 billion people will go under “total lockdown” for 21 days to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday, sparking panic buying.
“From 12 midnight today, the entire country will be in lockdown, total lockdown,” Modi said in a national television address to the world’s second-most populous nation.
“To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family... every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown.”
India has lagged behind other nations in the number of Covid-19 cases, but there has been a sharp increase in recent days to 519 infections, including 10 deaths, according to the government.
A raft of lockdown measures had already been brought in by individual states and territories – including sealing borders and restricting movement to only essential services – in a bid to prevent an explosion of cases that could overwhelm the fragile public health system.
Modi warned that Indians had to observe the lockdown if they wanted to stop the spread of the deadly virus.