Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Indian authorities across the country have been putting their regions in shutdown to contain the outbreak. Now, the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has announced through a TV address to the 1.3 billion citizens he has decreed a 21-day lockdown to curb the virus. All citizens were warned to “stay inside or risk inviting the pandemic into their homes.” He then pledged $2 billion to aid the country’s plagued healthcare system.
Modi acknowledged that the 21-day lockdown would be a massive blow to the economy but that the alternative of not doing anything could set the country back 21 years. He said:
To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out.
Nearly 20% of the world’s population got put under lockdown with this move. Everyone began to panic following the announcement. Across the country, people began to rush to markets to stock up on supplies, so many that police had to disperse crowds outside stores to try and restore order.
While countries all over the world were enforcing strict policies and closing down schools and non-essential businesses, India was just conducting relatively scant testing for the disease. Meanwhile, experts were saying that local spreading in the country would be inevitable since tens of millions of people live in dense urban areas with irregular access to clean water.
Still, India didn’t buckle down until the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic triggering the nation’s government to finally invoke a British Raj-era epidemic act giving it sweeping powers to contain the disease. By then, cases had already begun to proliferate with the potential to “spread like wildfire,” said Modi.
Recently, India banned international and domestic flights, suspended passenger services on the extensive rail system, and enacted stay-at-home orders – all until March 31st.
Modi’s “total lockdown” exempts essential services – such as banks, ATMs, grocery stores, and gas stations – from having to close.
Nirmala Sitharaman, Indian finance minister, said a comprehensive relief package would be announced soon for the 300 million citizens who (according to official data) live below the poverty line.
