New Delhi/May,12: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dropped hints at a gradual lockdown withdrawal and said social distancing is the biggest weapon in the COVID-19 fight given a “twofold challenge” to check the virus spread and to increase the public activity.
Many more continued to test positive for the deadly virus in the meantime, pushing the nationwide tally near 70,000 mark. The number of deaths in India have crossed 2,200 with more people succumbing to COVID-19 at various places including in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
Interacting with chief ministers in a video conference, PM Modi flagged that problems have increased wherever social distancing or lockdown measures were not followed. He also said a big challenge is to ensure that the infection does not spread to rural areas.
“I am of the firm view that the measures needed in the first phase of lockdown were not needed during the 2nd phase and similarly the measures needed in the 3rd Phase are not needed in the fourth,” he said.
The first phase of the nationwide lockdown began on March 25, which was supposed to be of 21 days but got extended later till May 3 and then further till May 17 for the third phase with some relaxations, mainly for industrial and agricultural activities.
The Union Health Ministry said the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 67,152, after a record number of 4,213 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours till Monday 8 AM, while the death toll rose by 97 to 2,206. More than 20,000 people have recovered also so far.
The new cases detected in the past few days include migrant workers who have returned to their native places from big urban clusters, many after being rendered jobless and homeless, as also some airlifted under a massive evacuation plan undertaken by the government for Indians and expatriates stranded abroad.
