New Delhi: Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli and his celbrity wife Anushka Sharma on Wednesday backed PM Modi's 21-day nationwide lockdown declaration by requesting fellow countrymen to stay at home with the coronavirus entering a very critical phase in the country.


"These are testing times and we need to wake up to the seriousness of this situation. Please let us all follow what's been told to us and stand united please. It's a plea to everyone," Kohli captioned the 51-second-long video on Twitter in which both the Indian skipper and Anushka can be seen urging people to remain indoors and follow social distancing.


On Tuesday, PM Modi announced that the country will be under complete lockdown for next 21 days as a measure to break the coronavirus chain from spreading on a large scale.

Welcoming the move, Kohli had requested countrymen to "stay at home" for next 21 days as "social distancing is the only cure" available with us which can stop novel coronavirus from spreading.

"As our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji just announced, the whole country is going into a lockdown starting midnight today for the next 21 days. My request will remain the same, PLEASE STAY AT HOME. Social distancing is the only cure for COVID-19", Kohli tweeted.


In India, more than 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported till now and 11 lives have also been lost.