Hima Das, Mirabai Chanu urge people to follow lockdown and stay home

Indian sprinter Hima Das and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu on Friday urged countrymen to stay at home and follow the lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The comments came soon after they attending a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on COVID-19 lockdown, via video conferencing.

Speaking about the meeting, Das told ANI, "First of all, all the sportspersons thanked the Prime Minister for handling the current situation and talking to us. Prime Minister talked about the measures to contain the COVID-19 and steps the government is taking. We also shared our daily routine and lifestyle in the lockdown."

"I feel sad when people breach the lockdown and pelt stones towards police and doctors. Stay at home and follow social distancing," Das added.

Das and Chanu both attended the meeting with the Prime Minister where top sportspersons talked about the situation in the country.

"Follow the lockdown and maintain social distancing, We have to follow this together to fight against coronavirus. Stay at home and enjoy the time with family. Prime Minister also advised to light a diya, candle, or flashlight on April 5 for nine minutes to fight against coronavirus so please follow that too. Stay at home and stay safe," Chanu said.

PM further asked them to include the following five points in their message to people: 'sankalp' to fight the pandemic, 'sanyam' to follow social distancing, 'sakaratmakta' to maintain positivity, 'samman' to respect the frontline soldiers in this battle including the medical fraternity, the police personnel etc and 'sahyog' at the personal level as well as at national level through contribution to PM-CARES fund. He also asked them to highlight the importance of both physical and mental fitness and also popularize guidelines released by AYUSH Ministry.

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.

The other prominent people present the meeting included PT Usha, Pullela Gopichand, Vishwanathan Anand, Hima Das, Bajrang Punia, PV Sindhu, Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, and Cheteshwar Pujara.