Coronavirus lockdown: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 10 AM on 14th April 2020,” PMO India tweeted.
The 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus ends tomorrow, 14 April, and it is expected the prime minister is likely to talk about its possible extension.
The Prime Minister is widely expected to announce an extension of the lockdown till April 30 as several states have made requests. but as per the experts, this time he will come up with few measures to restart the economy too.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met 13 chief ministers to take a call on extending the period of lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus. In the meeting on Saturday, the chief ministers of most states had asked for an extension of the lockdown period as cases continue to rise.
Interacting with chief ministers via video conference, the prime minister had said the next 3-4 weeks are critical to determining the impact of steps taken till now to curb the coronavirus spread and urged state governments to ensure strict adherence to the lockdown.
Mean-while, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Odisha, have already extended the lockdown till 30 April.
The first 21-day nation-wide shutdown to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 has been announced by the PM on March 24.
As of now, 308 people have died of coronavirus in India with 35 deaths in the last 24 hours. The highly infectious novel coronavirus or COVID-19 has infected 9,152 people in the country, according to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry.
Union Ministers and officers have started to return to their offices this morning, two days after a directive that all government officials who are entitled to official vehicles should return to work. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju were some of the early office-goers today.
