Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation tomorrow at 10 am on the coronavirus lockdown. This was a much-anticipated event since the day the PM held a meeting with the chief ministers of the states.
During the video conference meeting with 13 Chief Ministers on Saturday, most CMs pointed out that they may not have the massive resources needed to deal with a spurt in COVID-19 cases if the lockdown is removed sooner. The chief ministers asked the centre for relief packages.
So far, the highly contagious COVI-19 has infected over 9000 people. More than 350 people have died due to the virus.
In a tweet on Monday afternoon, the PMO Twitter handle announced that PM Modi will address the nation at 10 am on Tuesday.
Here are some possible scenarios we can expect the PM to announce tomorrow.
1. Extended Lockdown
States like Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana have already extended the lockdown till 30th April. The central government might decide to go ahead and announce the extension of the lockdown with all the current restrictions in place.
2. Phased lifting:
Experts have this opinion that the government should begin lifting the lockdown in a phased manner. Sectors like mining, construction and manufacturing where most workers work together without much outside interaction can be opened up with social distancing protocols.
3. Colour Codes:
There have also been talks about dividing regions into red, orange and green zones, depending upon the severity and number of COVID cases. For regions in the red zone, maximum containment will remain in place, with green zones being allowed to function as normal.
India was put on a 21-day lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus. The announcement of complete lockdown was made by PM Modi on March 24.