COVID-19: Bajrang Punia urges people to follow PM Modi's appeal to light candles on April 5

Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia on Friday urged people to follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to countrymen to light Diyas and candles on April 5 at 9 pm for nine minutes to fight the darkness spread by the pandemic.

"Our Prime Minister has appealed to us to switch off lights and light Diyas and candles on April 5 at 9 pm for nine minutes. So, I appeal to everyone to show unity as we showed during the Janata Curfew. I will be taking part in this with my family and I urge you to do the same," Punia told ANI.

Punia's comments came soon after attending a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on COVID-19 lockdown, via video conferencing.

Punia also saluted the country's medical workers and requested people to follow the government's advisories.

"I believe all of you must be adhering to the lockdown. Today, we athletes talked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and got to know about how this coronavirus is a big problem for us. Our medical workers are on the frontline and I salute them," he said.

"At this point in time, our medical facilities are not equipped to handle our population. So, I request you all to follow the advisories of the government and our doctors," Punia added.

The meeting was attended by 40 sportspersons of the country including Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Mary Kom on the ongoing situation in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This is the first time that the Prime Minister has interacted with sports personalities since the 21-day lockdown was enforced on March 24 to contain the spread of the virus.

Other prominent personalities present in the meeting were PT Usha, Pullela Gopichand, Vishwanathan Anand, Hima Das, Bajrang Punia, PV Sindhu, Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, and Cheteshwar Pujara.