Prime Minister Narendra Modi will share a video message on Friday morning as the country enters the 10th day of the nationwide lockdown and has seen a rise in the number of coronavirus disease cases.
The Prime Minister tweeted about the video message on Thursday but did not specify the topic of the video.
“At 9 AM tomorrow morning, I’ll share a small video message with my fellow Indians,” he had tweeted in Hindi and English.
The Prime Minister has addressed the nation twice so far as the coronavirus pandemic spread throughout the country. He had called for a Janta Curfew or people’s curfew on March 19 and announced the 21-day lockdown on March 24 as a step to break the chain of infection.
Modi has tweeted several times urging citizens to follow social distancing norms and stay at home. He has also shared a number of ideas to make the best use of the lockdown period, including a series of yoga exercises to stay fit while at home.
His Mann ki Baat monthly radio programme was also about the coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister talked about the people who are on the frontline to fight the spread of Covid-19, those who have beaten the respiratory disease and shared how many were using their time during the lockdown.
PM Modi during his meeting with chief ministers through video conference on Thursday asked for a common plan to ensure staggered movement of people after the national lockdown ends on April 14.
Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) special envoy on the disease, has praised India’s call for the lockdown.
“The lockdown in India was quite early on when there was relatively a small number of cases detected. This was really a far-sighted decision because it gave the whole country the opportunity to come to terms with the reality of this enemy,” Nabarro said in an interview with HT.
The government has announced a slew of other measures, including a financial package, to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. However, the country’s biggest cluster of coronavirus infections in Delhi’s Nizamuddin has seen officials scrambling to contain the spread of Covid-19 throughout the country.
Thousands of people visited the Nizamuddin Markaz of the Tablighi Jamaat in March, including delegates from Muslim-majority countries Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
About 9,000 people, including hundreds of foreigners, linked to the Jamaat have been quarantined or are being sought out to be isolated.
The number of Covid-19 infections in Delhi jumped on Thursday by 141, the biggest single-day increase yet, with nearly 92% or 129 of them linked to the Tablighi Jamaat.
India has reported 2069 cases of the coronavirus disease, including 53 deaths, till 6pm on April 2.
