In an unprecedented move, 23 Indian states and seven Union Territories (UTs) have announced complete lockdown in their entire areas covering as many as 548 districts to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19).
India reported three Covid-19 deaths on March 23rd, 2020, taking the death toll to 10. The total number of confirmed cases climbed to 499 as of March 23rd, 2020.
While, Maharashtra and Punjab were put under statewide curfews, the rest of the country is in lockdown and all domestic flights are set to be grounded on March 24th, 2020 (midnight).
“The operations of domestic schedule commercial airlines shall cease operations with effective from the midnight 23.59 IST hours on 24/3/2020. Airlines have to plan operations so as to land at their destination before 2359 hours on 24/3/2020. The restrictions shall not apply to solely cargo-carrying flights,” according to a government notification.
The extreme measures were taken by the Central and State governments to prevent community transmission of the virus. The Centre directed the States and UTs to take legal action against those violating the restrictions imposed during the lockdown.
The Union Health Ministry said that 12 private-lab chains have been registered for testing coronavirus cases. These 12 labs have 15,000 collection centres.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged every Indian to follow the norms of lockdown to make it effective.
“Many people are still not taking the lockdown seriously. Please save yourself, save your family, follow the instructions seriously. I request state governments to ensure rules and laws are followed,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
As per reports, the number of deaths around the world from the coronavirus cases stood at 15,189.
Photo credit: Twitter
