IT Desk
Imphal, April 11
After meeting with Chief Ministers of all the states via video conference today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended two more weeks of lockdown with some graded relaxation in the fight against COVID-19, according to Times Now TV news channel. The lockdown, effective 25 March, was to end on 14 April. The decision comes after Modi and Chief Ministers of various states met over a video conference call for more than five hours.
Fear of community transmission of the Coronavirus happening in some parts of the country, exemplified by a continuous rise in number of fresh cases daily, would have led to the government taking the decision.
Odisha and Punjab had declared an extension of the lockdown Friday itself. Many other Chief Ministers, both from the opposition side as well Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) favoured the extension. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) led Maharashtra, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)-led Telangana, Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led West Bengal and Congress-led Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh were some of the key non-BJP led state governments that supported the extension of lockdown.
Ahead of today’s video conferencing meeting, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister took stock of the situation with the Empowered groups at a high level meeting in New Delhi yesterday.
Prime Minister has already held talks with leaders of various political parties on 8th of this month as well as with different stakeholders to seek their views and support to contain the spread of COVID 19. The Prime Minister has discussed on two occasions the implementation of lockdown with state Chief Ministers and LGs of union territories. He held interactions with them via video conferencing on the 20th of March and 2nd of April.
As per latest figures of ministry of health and family welfare, there are 6,565 active cases of covid-19. There have been 239 deaths.
India witnessed a sharp rise in just a few days, with the number of cases jumping from around 5,000 on 7 April to more than 7,000 on 10 April. Among the states that contributed the most to this spike were Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. The number of deaths also increased to over 200 from 136 in just three days.
