Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 8 pm today. This comes a day after he held a six-hour-long marathon meeting with the chief ministers on various aspects of the situation arising out of the pandemic and the nationwide lockdown. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) tweeted that the address will take place at 8 pm.

This will be PM Modi’s third address to the nation on the Covid-19 lockdown. He had first announced the lockdown in his televised address to the nation on March 24, then announced its extension on April 14. Apart from this, the Prime Minister had also addressed the nation as he asked the country to observe one-day Janta Curfew in March to break the cycle of infection.

The Prime Minister announced the 21-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown on March 25 to break the chain of Covid-19 infections in the country.

The address comes a day after PM Modi held a video-conference with chief ministers on the Covid-19 situation. The Prime Minister said in the meeting that states will have greater say in determining the extent of restrictions and relaxations after May 17, within a broad national framework while underlining that India faced two challenges - reducing the transmission rate of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and resuming public activity gradually. He also emphasised that social distancing remains the “biggest weapon” against the virus till a vaccine is found, and suggested that the lockdown may not be lifted entirely.

PM Modi also said that India now had a good sense of the spread of the disease, and urged states to carefully examine specific geographical areas to come up with a road map for the next phase of lockdown.

साभार-khaskhabar.com