Coronavirus: India extends national lockdown until 3 May as Modi urges country to maintain 'discipline'

‘From the economic angle, we have paid a big price,’ PM says in national address. ‘But the lives of the people of India are far more valuable’

Mumbai yesterday – India’s lockdown has been particularly strict (AFP)

India’s national coronavirus lockdown has been extended until 3 May, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling on the public to keep up their “discipline”.

Mr Modi addressed the nation on Tuesday morning, the final day of an initial three-week lockdown that he admitted had dealt a severe blow to the country’s economy.

“From the economic angle, we have paid a big price,” he said. “But the lives of the people of India are far more valuable.”

Officials have in the past week been talking up the prospect of a staggered easing of India’s lockdown, with the strictest measures maintained only in “hotspot” districts with higher numbers of cases.

But after carrying out only 200,000 tests on a population approaching 1.4 billion, the authorities may have decided they do not yet have a clear enough picture of the true extent of the virus spread.

Mr Modi said monitoring would continue to be ramped up until next Monday, at which point “only those regions that show no evidence of cases or [coronavirus] spread will be allowed some restricted movement”.

The prime minister called on Indians to honour and thank “coronavirus warriors” – medical workers on the frontline of the fight with Covid-19 – amid reports of doctors and nurses being evicted by landlords over virus fears.

India has had more than 9,000 cases and 339 coronavirus deaths so far, although Mr Modi insisted it was much better placed than many other countries as it had acted quickly, imposing travel and quarantine restrictions even before the first death was reported in the country.

The lockdown here has been particularly strict, with people only allowed to step outside their homes to buy essential supplies – and even then, in several major states and cities, required by law to wear masks.

Yet its enforcement has been inconsistent – unsurprisingly so for a country of this size. When the lockdown was first announced, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers fled cities to walk long distances home to their villages, with dozens dying on the road.

Social distancing rules have also proved difficult to follow for those living in urban slums, or informal workers in the food sector, where authorities have had to prioritise feeding the nation over best infection control practices.

Mr Modi, who held a four-hour conference call with state chief ministers on Saturday, said there was a consensus among states supporting the extension of the lockdown by another two weeks. He said there was no shortage of medicines or food staples in the country and promised an efficient supply chain to the people.