21-Day Lockdown, Rs 15,000 Crore Allotted: PM’s COVID-19 Address

PM Modi made the announcement in his nationwide address.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, 24 March announced a complete lockdown across the country for 21 days from Tuesday midnight, asserting that this is necessary for a decisive battle against the coronavirus outbreak.

In his second address to the nation on the pandemic raging across much of the world, Modi said the decision will have an economic cost but saving people's lives is of the paramount interest to his government.

Modi made a fervent appeal to the countrymen not to cross the ''lakshman rekha'' of their homes in the next three weeks.

“If we don’t handle these 21 days well, then our country, your family will go backwards by 21 years,”

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister