The Centre is considering a request made by most states to extend the ongoing nationwide lockdown by two more weeks beyond April 14, government said on Saturday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with chief ministers and told them focus should be now on health as well as prosperity of the nation.
“During the video-conferencing with state CMs today, most states requested Prime Minister Modi to extend the lockdown for two more weeks. The Central Government is considering this request,” a government spokesperson said.
There are indications that an extension in lockdown may come with certain relaxations to boost economic activities and sources said proposals being considered include lesser restrictions in areas unaffected by the virus spread.
After the interaction, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said the next two weeks of lockdown, after April 14, would be different from the ongoing one for three weeks.

He said the prime minister told the chief ministers that the lockdown extension was inevitable and guidelines will be issued about its implementation for further 15 days in a couple of days.

India could’ve seen 8.2L COVID-19 cases by Apr 15 sans lockdown
New Delhi: The number of coronavirus cases in the country could have increased to 8.2 lakh by April 15 had India not implemented a lockdown and other containment measures, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday.
Addressing a daily briefing on the coronavirus situation of the country, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said the country has taken early preemptive action to identify COVID-19 hotspots, along with implementing other containment measures.

“According to a statistical analysis by us, India would have registered a 41 per cent cumulative rise in the number of cases, taking the total to 2.08 lakh on April 11 and 8.2 lakh by April 15 had there been no lockdown or other containment measures,” the officer said.
With containment measures but no lockdown, the number of cases could have risen to 1.2 lakh till April 15 and to 45,370 on April 11 at 28.9 per cent growth rate, he said.

Stressing on the importance of social distancing, lockdown and other efforts in the battle against coronavirus, the officer said, “Since we started promoting social distancing and implemented lockdown from March 25 along with other containment measures, there has been a decrease in cases and we have 7,447 coronavirus cases till date.”

His remarks came on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with chief ministers and said that there seems to be a consensus among states on extending by another two weeks the ongoing nationwide lockdown, which began on March 25 and was to end on April 14.
At the briefing, Agarwal elaborated on India’s preparedness to deal with the challenge of the virus, saying 586 hospitals have been earmarked as dedicated COVID-19 facilities at state and Central level with capacity of over one lakh isolation beds and 11,836 ICU beds reserved for such patients.
“This figure is being augmented every day, based on the evolving situation,” he said.

According to the Health Ministry, 1,035 fresh COVID-19 cases and 40 deaths due to the disease were reported in the last 24 hours across the country, taking the total number of cases to 7,447 and deaths to 239 nationwide.
“The response of the Government of India has been preemptive, proactive and to the extent of being over-prepared and through our graded approach, we have aligned our response with the evolving situation,” he said.
The AYUSH ministry has prepared a set of guidelines on respiratory health and to boost immunity. Districts have been asked to incorporate this in district-level contingency plan as well, he said.

Agarwal also asserted that the country has no shortage of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, cited by many as a viable therapeutic solution to c
He said over 1.7 lakh samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the country so far, of which 16,564 were tested on Friday. Out of these 16,564 samples, 14,210 were tested in 146 government laboratories under the ICMR network and the remaining at 67 private labs.

During his interaction, Modi, himself wearing a white mask, told chief ministers the focus should be on “jaan bhi, jahaan bhi” and it is essential for “India’s bright future, and prosperous and healthy India”, the statement said.
“While announcing the lockdown, I had said ‘jaan hai to jahan hai’… Most people in the country understood it and discharged their responsibilities by remaining indoors. And now it is imperative to focus on both aspects, ‘Jaan bhi Jahan Bhi’, for India’s bright future, and prosperous and healthy India,” Modi said.
When every citizen does his work while keeping both these aspects in mind and follows the government instructions, then it will further strengthen our fight against coronavirus, he said.

Farmers and industry bodies have sought certain relaxations during the lockdown to carry out necessary activities.
During the video conference with Modi, several chief ministers including Punjab’s Amarinder Singh, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee and Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal had suggested extending the lockdown at least by a fortnight.
Odisha and Punjab have already extended the lockdown till April 30 and May 1 respectively.

The ongoing 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the COVID-19 crisis, announced by Modi on March 24, is scheduled to end on April 14.
Modi was accompanied by some senior officials, including from the Union health ministry, during the meeting and the chief ministers who participated in it also included Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra), Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Manohar Lal (Haryana), K Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana) and Nitish kumar (Bihar).