Need strategy to ensure staggered movement of people after lockdown ends: Modi to CMs

Modi, during a video conference with the Chief Ministers and administrators of various states on Novel Coronavirus , said as quoted by NDTV, "It is important to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ends."

Being accompanied by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, who were sitting in a room maintaining the social distancing norm, Prime Minister Modi said certain restrictions must be in place even after the 21-day lockdown ends.

The Prime Minister has also asked the Chief Ministers to identify the "hotspots" and "encircle" them to contain infection.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee skipped the meeting with the Prime Minister on Thursday but her principal secretary Rajiva Sinha represented the eastern state.

The massive unprecedented 21-day lockdown called by Modi on Mar 24 to stem the spread of COVID-19. 

As per the government figures, the country of 1.3 billion people witnessed the biggest single-day jump in positive cases on Wednesday as the tally now stands at 1965 though the figure is much comforting than the ones which came out of the developed western world.

However, medical experts say the poor health infrastructure of India could get overwhelmed if India enters into the community transmission stage.

India stares at more cases due to Tablighi Jamaat event

Though the number of positive cases in India is comparatively lower than the other parts of the world, the country is staring at a surge in the cases due to the congregation of Muslim preachers at a religious event which took place in Delhi in mid-March.

At a time the idea of social distancing was embraced both by the Centre and the state governments, Tablighi Jamaat, an "orthodox" missionary, congregated around 3,000 people at Alami Markaz Banglewali Masjid in Nizamuddin in Delhi flouting all norms of self-isolation.

Reports suggest that the preachers had congregated at the event of Tablighi Jamaat preachers in mid-March, just days after the Delhi government had banned the gatherings of 200 people at any place in the wake of the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus.

According to a Hindustan Times report, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Mar 28-29 midnight sent National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval to Nizamuddin Markaz, Maulana Saad, to convince him to get the occupants of the mosque to get tested for COVID-19.

But all that happened only after the Delhi police had failed to convince Markaz.

Seven of the total number of deceased (over 50) so far in the country were incidentally the attendees of the event creating panic among the people across the country.

Six of those seven attendees had died in Telangana after they had fled to the southern state of India.

All the 16 infected patients in Assam, one each in Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh had joined the Tablighi Jamaat event triggering more fear of an upsurge in the tally among the people.

The Ministry of Health on Wednesday said 1800 people related to Tabligh Jamaat have been shifted to nine hospitals or quarantined centers across Delhi.