NEW DELHI: After Delhi government’s COVID-19 committee suggested to extend the ongoing lockdown till mid-May, five more states have also echoed the same sentiment.
The other five states that are ready to extend the lockdown in major hotspots beyond May 3 are Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab.
The news reports surfaced just before the scheduled meeting of PM Modi with Chief Ministers of all states and Union territories.
The Delhi government had announced a lockdown in Delhi on March 23 followed by a nation-wide lockdown by the Centre from midnight of March 24 till April 14.
The lockdown was further extended to May 3 by the Centre. As Delhi has a large number of containment zones, so it decided to extend it till May 16 for the epidemic curve to flatten.
On the other hand, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, said they will follow whatever the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) says.
Experts have warned that if lockdown restrictions are eased before flattening of the curve, cases could “flare up like wildfire”.
In India, the total number of coronavirus cases crossed 26000 mark on Sunday with nearly 2000 fresh COVID-19 cases reported in a span of 24 hours from across the country, so far it has killed more than 800 people in India.