Amid lockdown 3.0, India waits for PM Modi's address to nation

Modi will address the nation at 8 pm.

The PM's address will come a day after he met all state Chief Ministers over the Covid-19 situation in the country and the nationwide lockdown.

During the video conference, four states- Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana and West Bengal- appealed to the Centre to extend the lockdown while several others favoured few relaxations amid the lockdown, report said.

In his opening remarks, the PM said, “We now have reasonably clear indication as to the geographical spread of the pandemic in India, including the worst affected areas. Moreover, over the past few weeks, officials have understood operating procedures in a time such as this, right up to the District level.” 

Modi said that this understanding of the spread of Covid-19 will help the country in having a focussed fight against it.

“And therefore, we can now further focus our strategy in this battle against coronavirus, as should be the case. We have a twofold challenge – to reduce the transmission rate of the disease, and to increase public activity gradually, while adhering to all the guidelines, and we will have to work towards achieving both these objectives," he said.

India went into the lockdown mode first on Mar 24 midnight when Modi had announced a 21-day shutdown which was later extended twice till May 17.