PM Modi To Address Nation Tomorrow At 10 AM; Decision On Lockdown Extension Likely

PM Modi's address to nation: Several states including Maharashtra, West Bengal, Punjab and Telangana have already extended the lockdown in wake of the soaring Covid-19 cases across the nation.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation tomorrow at 10 AM. As the 21-day lockdown comes to its end, people were waiting for decision of the Prime Minister on the future course of action against the Coronavirus pandemic. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) announced on Twitter this afternoon, "Prime Minister @narendramodi will address the nation at 10 a.m. on 14th April 2020." The PM had hinted that a careful assessment of the situation will be made before taking any decision on the lockdown. In a recent video conference of the Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers of different states, many ministers expressed a need for an extension on the lockdown. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held the is holding a video conference to discuss the measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The conference came in the backdrop of an increasing number of cases of COVID-19 patients across the country which is under 21-day lockdown to break the chain of transmission of the disease. Some states like Odisha have already declared an extension of the lockdown till April 30. Also Watch:

It was also decided to colour code areas on the bases of the number of existing cases there. Districts maybe divided as red, yellow or orange and green. The red zone will be those areas with the highest number of cases. This division can also help the Centre to make an informed strategy for the lockdown. Authorities in different states have also started sealing areas with an increase in cases for effective testing and quarantine.

At present India’s cases of coronavirus continues to increase and the country has reported 9152confirmed cases while the death toll has reached 308.

According to the Prime Minister's intructions, all ministers of the Narendra Modi cabinet went back to their ministries on Monday physically, to resume work that was so far being done from home through video conferencing, in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Among the notables was Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She posted a photo wearing a mask on Twitter to say: "Back to working in North Block office with a home-made mask this morning." Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar too reached his office by 10 a.m. and held a meeting with I&B Secretary Rajiv Mittal and two additional secretary rank officers, say sources. The I&B ministries work on dissemination of information on the coronavirus at a time when fake news has been rampant was reviewed. It is learnt, a list of all employees of the ministry is asked to be prepared so they can be deputed on rotation basis. All cars reaching ministries in Shastri Bhawan, that houses a host of ministries were properly sanitized before they were allowed to enter. This included the car of ministers. Among others who visited their ministry were Union Culture Minister Prahlad Patel and Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Both of them were properly in masks.

Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh first time arrived his office at North Block with bare minimum staff. These Ministers were working from home since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced three-week lockdown from March 24 midnight. The rejoining comes in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking ministers to physically go to ministries starting Monday and keep their officials on rotation basis. India's 21 days shutdown to contain spread of the coronavirus ends on Tuesday, but is likely to be extended. Meanwhile, there have been few ministers who have been regularly visiting their ministries, even while most ministers worked from home, using video conferencing. Both minister of states for Home - G. KiShan Reddy and Nityanand Rai have been regularly visiting the North Block to take stock of situation. Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar too, have been visiting his ministry during the shutdown.

(With additional information from IANS)