Four states decided to extend the lockdown till April 30th

The country is likely to witness an extended lockdown of two more weeks till April end after nearly all chief ministers seem to be in consensus for the same in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday. The Centre said it was considering the request, although an official statement is yet to be made on Monday.

“PM emphasized the importance of the coming 3-4 weeks for determining the impact of the guidelines implemented till date to contain the virus. He emphasised that the motto of the government initially was ‘jaan hai to jahaan hai’ but now it is ‘jaan bhi, jahaan bhi’,” an official statement said.

Four states – Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Odisha – have decided to extended the imposed lockdown to control Covid-19 spread, in their respective territories till April 30.

Taking into consideration that state shares a long border with Maharashtra, where the virus spread is rampant, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said stringent rules are required to ensure that Telangana is protected.

“If not fully, at least, we may partially lift in a phased manner. Therefore, I request all to cooperate,” Rao said. Referring to the annual exams of SSC students, which came to a halt midway, he said a decision would be taken soon.

However, the cabinet has announced promotion of students of class 1 to 9 to the next class, the chief minister said. According to a media news, two new deaths and 16 positive cases were reported in the state on Saturday. With that the death toll due to covid-19 spiked to 14 in the state.

The active positive cases count in the state mounted to 393 after including 16 new cases on Saturday, the bulletin said.