Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that it cannot be business as usual at the end of the 21 day lockdown period and called on chief ministers of the states to work out a staggered return . He also asked the Chief Ministers to send in their suggestions on the matter.
The PM said this during a video conference with Chief Ministers which was attended by chief ministers of nine states. The PM was assisted by Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. all of whom maintained a distance from each other as well during the conference.
The Prime Minister said that once the lockdown is lifted, the states should enforce the lockdown and should identify hotspots and try to contain the virus. The PM said that the focus for the next few days should be testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine and to ensure that there is minimum loss of life.
The Prime Minister also discussed with the leaders of states, ways of identifying and tracing the people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in the Nizamuddin area of Delhi.
The Prime Minister had ordered for a 21 days lockdown on 24th March saying that it was necessary to break the chain of transmission of the pandemic. The announcement sparked a sense of panic in the people especially those who lived on daily wages, as they started moving towards their villages which posed a risk to the efforts being made by the Central and State Governments to prevent the spread of the contagious disease.
-India Legal Bureau
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