India has placed its 1.3 billion residents under a nationwide lockdown amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Tuesday a prohibition on all travel to and from the country and a limit on the ability of Indians to travel within the nation. The lockdown will last for approximately 21 days.
“The nation is going to take a very important decision today,” Modi said in a video announcement. “Please listen carefully, from 12 midnight today, the entire country will go under a complete lockdown. To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes.”
India had previously taken measures to limit the spread, exempting essential services such as hospitals, police, media, and service providers from other stay-at-home orders issued. Modi did not clarify whether or not service providers would be exempt in the new order but said “all steps have been taken by central and state government to ensure supply of essential items.”
?The entire country will be under lockdown from 12 midnight today
?The lock down will be enforced for 21 days to break the cycle of infection
? Every state, UT, district and village will be locked down. It’s a kind of curfew itself, like the Janata curfew pic.twitter.com/IKjZkiwseJ— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) March 24, 2020
According to Johns Hopkins University, there are 519 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the country, which has killed approximately 10. However, 40 Indians have recovered from the virus.
COVID-19 cases have appeared on every continent except Antarctica. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 400,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus around the world, at least 17,000 have died from it, and more than 103,000 have recovered. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic nearly two weeks ago.
