Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 14th, 2020 indicated at easing of lockdown restrictions in places where there is no hotspot after April 20th, 2020.

Modi announced the extension of lockdown till May 3rd, 2020 amid spiking novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the country.

“Until April 20th, 2020, every town, every police station, every district, every state will be evaluated on how much the lockdown is being followed.The extent to which the region has protected itself from coronavirus will be noted. Our country has greatly benefited from social distancing and lockdown,” Modi said.

He added, “Areas that will succeed in this litmus test, which will not be in the hot-spot category and will have less likelihood to turn into a hot-spot, may be allowed to open up select necessary activities from April 20th, 2020.”

Modi said that the relaxation permission will be conditional, and the rules for going out will be very strict.

“Permission will be withdrawn immediately if lockdown rules are broken, and spread of coronavirus risked. Hence, we must make sure we ourselves don’t become careless, not allow anyone else to do so. A detailed guideline will be issued by the Government tomorrow in this regard,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister said that the provision of the limited exemption in the identified areas after April 20th, 2020 has been done keeping in mind the livelihood of weaker section.

“Those who earn daily, make ends meet with daily income, they are my family. One of my top-most priorities is to reduce the difficulties in their lives.The government has made every possible effort to help them through Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojna. Their interests have also been taken care of while making the new guidelines. These days, the harvesting of the Rabi crop is also in progress. The Central and State governments are working together to minimize the problems of the farmers,” Modi further said.

The Prime Minister also assured that the country has ample reserves of medicines, food-ration and other essential goods; and supply chain constraints are continuously being removed.

“We are making rapid progress in ramping up health infrastructure as well. From having only one testing lab for coronavirus in January, we now have more than 220 functional testing labs. Global experience shows that 1,500-1,600 beds are required for every 10,000 patients. In India, we have arranged more than 1 lakh beds today. There are more than 600 hospitals which are dedicated to COVID-19 treatment,” Modi said.

Photo credit: @narendramodi