Three-week lockdown for 1.3bn in India

Modi acts to curb spread of virus

India ordered a 21-day lockdown on Tuesday to curb the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) among its 1.3 billion people.

Everyone in the world’s second most populous country must stay at home for the next three weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. “The only way to save ourselves from coronavirus is if we don’t leave our homes, whatever happens, we stay at home,” Modi said in a second address in less than a week. “Every district, every lane, every village will be under lockdown.”

India has reported 482 cases of the coronavirus and 10 people have died from the COVID-19 disease it causes, but health researchers have warned that more than a million people in India could be infected by mid-May.

Ahead of the midnight shutdown, people in Delhi and Mumbai were rushing to shops to stock up and police were deployed to maintain order. Modi urged people not to crowd shops and said there were enough stocks.

“Social distancing and lockdown are the only answer to contain the virus from spreading further. A country like India cannot cope with the virus if it spreads to the community,” Dr. Arvind Kumar of Sir Gangaram Hospital in Delhi told Arab News.

Political analyst and economist Pranjoy Guha Thakaruta said Modi should have announced specific measures to help the poor. “How will they survive for the next three weeks?” he said. “What about those who are faced with a choice of either feeding their families or contracting the virus?”

More than 2.6 billion people worldwide, a third of the population, are now in lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Other countries, including Saudi Arabia have imposed evening curfews. Worldwide there have been more than 377,000 virus cases and at least 16,500 deaths.

The virus has infected more than

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42,000 people in the US, killing at least 559, and the World Health Organization warned on Tuesday that it could become the global center of the pandemic.

“We are now seeing a very large acceleration in cases in the US. So it does have that potential,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.

In the UK, the virus death toll jumped by 87 to 422, the biggest daily increase since the crisis began. On the first day of a national lockdown, the government called for 250,000 volunteers for the health service.