COVID-19 lockdown maybe extended till Apr 30 with tweaked restrictions

The nationwide coronavirus lockdown is set to be extended at least till April 30 after a broad "consensus" on it emerged on Saturday during a meeting of chief ministers with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who stressed on "jaan bhi, jahaan bhi", indicating that restrictions may be tweaked as it was important to save livelihoods along with lives.

According to sources, all central ministers have also been asked to resume work in ministries from Monday and put together plans for post-lockdown period to kick-start the economy.

India has witnessed a sudden spike in the coronavirus infections with 1,035 fresh COVID-19 cases and 40 deaths due to the disease being reported in the last 24 hours across the country, which is under a 21-day nationwide lockdown since March 25.

The current spell of the lockdown, billed as the world's largest shutdown to check the spread of the infection, ends on Tuesday even as the Union health ministry asserted that the tally of confirmed cases could have reached 8.2 lakh by April 15 in the absence of the lockdown and other containment measures.

In the interaction held via video conferencing, most of the chief ministers suggested that the nationwide lockdown should be extended by two more weeks, an official statement said.

Emphasising the criticality of coming 3-4 weeks for determining the impact of the steps taken till now to contain the virus, Modi told the chief ministers that "teamwork is the key to facing the challenge".

It said Modi also underlined that the motto of the government earlier was 'jaan hai to jahaan hai' (the world exists if life exists) but now it is 'jaan bhi jahaan bhi' (lives as well as livelihoods). According to sources, the government is focusing on hotspots of COVID-19 to contain the spread of the pandemic and on efforts to kick-start the economy once the lockdown is lifted.

Though the government did not directly announce its decision on the lockdown extension, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after the meeting tweeted "PM has taken correct decision to extend lockdown. Today, India's position is better than many developed countries because we started lockdown early. If it is stopped now, all gains would be lost. To consolidate, it is imp to extend it."