- Title: Modi puts all of India under lockdown for 21 days to fight coronavirus
- Date: 24th March 2020
- Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (MARCH 24, 2020) (ANI - NO USE INDIA) BARRICADES AT DELHI-GURUGRAM BORDER VEHICLES NEAR BARRICADES
- Embargoed: 7th April 2020 16:54
- Keywords: India Narendra Modi New Delhi Prime Minister coronavirus disease lockdown
- Location: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- City: NEW DELHI, INDIA
- Country: India
- Topics: Health/Medicine
- Reuters ID: LVA004C6EUTSF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a 21-day lockdown of the world's second most populous country on Tuesday (March 24), following China's example to halt the spread of coronavirus that has infected tens of thousands across the world.
Health researchers have warned that more than a million people in India could be infected with the coronavirus by mid-May, prompting the government to shut down all air and train travel, businesses and schools.
On Tuesday, Modi, the powerful leader of the world's biggest democracy went further, saying nobody will be allowed to leave their homes for the next three weeks beginning midnight Tuesday.
India has found 499 cases of the coronavirus and ten people have died from the COVID-19 disease it causes but alarm is growing across the region about prospects for its spread into impoverished communities and the ability of resource-starved public health sectors to cope.
Already health officials said the virus was spreading out of big Indian cities where it first appeared into the small towns that dot the landscape.
More than 377,300 people have been infected by the coronavirus globally and 16,520 have died since it emerged in China, according to a Reuters tally.
Across South Asia, home to a quarter of the world's population, authorities are scrambling to raise their defences as the virus spreads. - Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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