Centre mulling to extend lockdown
New Delhi: Following requests from several state governments and experts, the Centre is considering extending the nationwide lockdown after its ends on April 14 in order to stem the transmission of COVID-19, government sources said.
“A lot of state governments as well as experts are requesting the Central Government to extend the lockdown. The Central Government is thinking in this direction,” sources said.
At least seven states, which together have reported 1,367 coronavirus cases—almost one-third of the total cases in India—had indicated that they would continue to have some restrictions in place even after the 21-day lockdown ends on April 14.
Sources said that the centre is leaning towards extending the ongoing three-week lockdown announced to contain the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) at least till the end of this month.
The Union health ministry, however, clarified that there was no decision on extending the nationwide lockdown yet, asking people not to speculate.
The sweeping restrictions, including ban on public transport as well as commercial rail and air travel, came into force on March 25 and were set to end on April 14. Only people involved in the delivery of essential services, such as health care, are allowed to function in this period.
States such as Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka have suggested they were not in favour of lifting all restrictions after April 14 and conveyed to the Centre that the pandemic will be easier to contain if the lockdown were to continue. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh too have favoured an extension of the lockdown.
Earlier on Tuesday, a group of ministers led by defence minister Rajnath Singh met at his residence to discuss various issues that would have to be factored in once the lockdown was lifted. “The ministers were very clear that even if the lockdown is lifted, travel restrictions will remain,” said the official quoted above.
It was for the fourth time that the group met. Singh and home minister Amit Shah usually head these meetings. On Tuesday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman too attended the discussions, along with 14 other ministers.
The talks focused on what form of travel should be allowed. “Trains and buses will not be back to normal,” said the official. “Air traffic will also be disrupted. The public should expect a slow, staggered return to a new normal.’’
A key concern flagged in the meeting was that the farming sector was struggling. The ministers discussed the challenge amid apprehensions that the harvest season would face a major setback.
“The ministers were briefed that the special concessions for agriculture were not filtering down. The labourers were too scared to go back to work,” said a second official.
In the same way, the lack of resources was also impacting the supply of medicines. While there was no shortage of drugs, said this official, there was a shortage of people to transport them.
The official said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be conveyed the key deliberations at Tuesday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the country due to novel coronavirus rose to 124 and the number of cases climbed to 4,789 on Tuesday, registering an increase of 508 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 4,312, as many as 352 people were cured and discharged and one has migrated to another country, it stated. The total number of cases include 66 foreign nationals.
According to the ministry’s data updated at 6 PM, 13 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours.
Four deaths were reported from Madhya Pradesh, three from Maharashtra, three from Rajasthan and one each from Gujarat, Odisha and Punjab.
Maharashtra has reported the most coronavirus deaths so far at 48, followed by Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh at 13 each, Telangana, Punjab and Delhi seven each and Tamil Nadu with five fatalities.
Karnataka has registered four deaths so far, while West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have recorded three fatalities each. Two deaths each have been reported from Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala. Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana have reported one fatality each, according to the health ministry’s data.
However, a PTI tally based on the figures reported by the states directly showed at least 143 deaths across the country, while the number of confirmed cases reached 4,998. Of them, 414 have been cured and discharged. (with PTI inputs)
