Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged people to switch off lights of their homes at 9 pm for nine minutes on April 5 and light up lamps, candles, mobile flashlights to display the nation’s collective spirit to defeat coronavirus.
In a video message, the prime minister said people should maintain social distancing and not form groups while lighting up lamps. He said the people should stay indoors.
He also said that people displayed unprecedented discipline and sense of service during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown that started on March 24 for a period of 21 days.
Modi on Thursday hinted at a “staggered” exit from the ongoing lockdown after the 21-day period ends on April 14 while the nationwide tally of confirmed cases of the deadly virus infection crossed 2,300 with at least 53 deaths.
The figures announced by various states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, showed more than 400 positive cases getting detected on Thursday itself — taking the total to 2,360. At least 14 more deaths were reported too during the day.
With a huge congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in the national capital’s Nizamuddin area earlier this month emerging as the biggest hotspot of the coronovirus outbreak, authorities said nearly 9,000 people — members of the Jamaat and their primary contacts — have been identified and quarantined across the country. This includes, 1,306 foreigners who are associated with the Jamaat.
A majority of the new cases are linked to the congregation, officials said.
Among those who tested positive on Thursday, there were some doctors and at least one airline crew member.
Globally, more than 9,40,000 people have tested positive since the deadly virus outbreak in China in December 2019, while more than 47,000 have lost their lives.
World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said there had been a “near exponential growth” in new cases over the past five weeks and a doubling of deaths in the past week alone.
“In the next few days we will reach one million confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths,” he said, while asking Africa and Latin America to be ready for a wider impact.
