Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold another round of video conference with all chief ministers on Saturday to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and is expected to take a call on extending the lockdown, which will end on April 14.
The Centre is considering extending the three-week nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak after some states asked its enforcement beyond April 14. It will also keep the option of lifting the restrictions in a staggered manner in mind.
Punjab and after Odisha have already extended the lockdown till the end of the month
Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka have said that the threat of Covid-19 would be easier to handle if the lockdown, which took effect on March 25, remains in force for a longer duration.
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Puducherry are also among others who have favoured an extension of the lockdown.
Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday stressed ‘lockdown is the only way to save our people’ as he ruled out lifting the nationwide restrictions in one go.
He had said that life will not be the same again after the coronavirus pandemic and that there would be “pre-corona and post-corona” for times to come.
“I am regularly talking to CMs, districts and experts. Nobody is telling me to lift the lockdown. We need strict rules to maintain social distancing. We have to take many unexpected steps too,” Modi said.
“I will talk again to CMs. But as of now, the mood is that entire lockdown lifting is not possible. We are also talking in district levels. For us, lockdown is the only way to save our people,” Modi added.
The number of Covid-19 cases in India on Friday reached 6761 and 206 have so far died of the disease.
Experts have raised concern that once the lockdown is lifted and people are allowed to get out of home freely, it could lead to a spike in the number of cases, negating the gains from the lockdown. However, there are also worries that continuing with a strict lockdown could cause long-term damage to the economy.
The Union government has asked for strict enforcement of the current lockdown and reached out to states to assess if some categories of services and people needed to be exempted, in a sign that a set of restrictions will continue to be in place.
The Union health minister, Harsh Vardhan, on Friday met state health ministers and urged them to ensure that the lockdown was strictly followed.
“I request health ministers of all states to ensure that lockdown is followed 100% in your respective states. If we lag behind in this, it will be difficult for us to win this fight against Covid-19,” he said.
The Centre also constituted 10 high-level multi-disciplinary central teams to help states from where a high number of cases are being reported.
These teams have been rushed to Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh, to aid them in containment preparedness, hospital preparedness and ventilator management.
The Union home ministry has also reached out to states and asked whether more categories of people and services need to be exempted, officials familiar with the development said on Friday.
The step is also being widely seen as a sign that the lockdown will continue in some form.