Modi Orders 3-Week Total Lockdown for All 1.3 Billion Indians

[Demovictory9]

Modi Orders 3-Week Total Lockdown for All 1.3 Billion Indians

With four hours’ notice, India’s prime minister announced that no one could leave their homes for 21 days — the most severe step taken anywhere in the war against the coronavirus.

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“There will be a total ban of coming out of your homes,” the prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced on television Tuesday night, giving Indians less than four hours’ notice before the order took effect at 12:01 a.m.

“Every state, every district, every lane, every village will be under lockdown,” Mr. Modi said.

The breadth and depth of such a challenge is staggering in a country where hundreds of millions of citizens are destitute and countless millions live in packed urban areas with poor sanitation and weak public health care.

Though India’s number of reported coronavirus infections remains relatively low — around 500 — the fear is that, should the virus hit as it has in the United States, Europe or China, the consequences would lead to a disaster far bigger than anywhere else.

[pat_k]

1. "total" ?

No provisions for getting food announced?

Without being specific, Mr. Modi said “all the steps to ensure essential commodities will be maintained.”

Seems to me the order should have included the "steps" to be taken.

[Laelth]

2. Whoa! That's a HUGE step for the world's second-most populous nation to take.

Even China didn’t go that far. Talk about crippling the world economy. This will do it (if Modi can actually enforce his decree, which I doubt). India is horribly difficult to govern.

-Laelth

[defacto7]

3. The homeless? The slums?

[LAS14]

4. Then how come he's allowing grocers and pharmacists to stay open? If no one can shop? nt

[Demovictory9]

5. delivery?