Ahead of Centre's call, Punjab extends anti-Coronavirus lockdown till May 1

After holding a meeting with his cabinet ministers, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced the decision.

"Given the seriousness of the situation arising out of Covid19, Cabinet has decided to extend lockdown & curfew till 1st May. These are difficult times & I appeal to all to #StayHomeStaySafe & strictly observe health safeguards as you have done so far, for which I am thankful," Singh said on Twitter.

Singh also said the state cabinet has decided to constitute 15-member task force of professionals to prepare a strategy to exit from lockdown.

Also Punjab has decided to promote all Class V and Class VIII students, informed the Chief Minister of the state which has reported 132 cases so far.

While the Centre is mulling over the lockdown extension despite huge economic strains, Odisha became the first state on Thursday to extend the shutdown across all its districts till Apr 30.

As the number of positive COVID-19 cases is surging at an increasing rate across the country, Modi on Saturday will meet all Chief Ministers via video conference to take a call on the shutdown.

Ignoring the hurt on Indian economy due to the 21-day massive, unprecedented lockdown in a country of 1.3 billion people, at least six states have felt the extension of the lockdown would be the most wise decision at this hour.

In a catch-22, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the lockdown can't be lifted though the businesses in the state went for a toss in the last couple of weeks.

"Lockdown can't be stopped now because the COVID-19 cases are increasing. The coming few weeks are crucial. Nothing is more important than people's lives. Despite a lot of problems, we have to bear it," Banerjee said. 

"We will support any decision which will be taken by the central government on lockdown," she added.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao earlier said he was in favour of the extension of the lockdown to save the lives.

"We can recover from the economic problem. But, we cannot get back lost lives," Rao had told media.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, "We can bear the lockdown. We can also revive economy but we cannot get back the lost lives."

As per the government data, 6761 people including 516 cured and 206 deceased have been infected with Maharashtra registering the highest number of cases (1364) followed by the national capital Delhi (898) and Tamil Nadu (834).

Though the number of positive Coronavirus cases is much lower than the ones coming from other developed western nations, several health experts have warned India of getting its poor health infrastructure overwhelmed if the country enters into community transmission.

(Image Credit: Capt. Amarinder Singh Twitter and UNI)