Coronavirus LIVE updates: Even as India’s 1.3 billion citizens go into a 21-day lockdown, the country’s total number of cases rose to 562 on Wednesday, with Tamil Nadu reporting the death of a 54-year-old coronavirus patient. On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown in an attempt to stall the spread of coronavirus, which has claimed 9 lives in India. The restrictions came into force at midnight and will be in force for 21 days. The new measures follow a sharp increase in cases in recent days. India, which has a population of 1.3 billion, joins a growing list of countries that have imposed similar measures.
“To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family… every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown,” Modi said in a televised speech.
Modi warned that if India does not “handle these 21 days well, then our country… will go backwards by 21 years”.
“This is a curfew,” he said. “We will have to pay the economic cost of this but it is for your safety.”
He appealed for people not to panic and assured the essential services will carry on as usual – but crowds quickly mobbed stores in the Delhi and other cities.
Covid-19 has affected 421,413 people globally and 18,810 people have died from it across the world.
(This story has not been edited by Kashmir Today staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)