Chennai: Following his video conference with Chief Ministers on Monday during which he received inputs from heads of various States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the nation at 8 pm today, to reveal the government’s future plan to deal with Covid-19.
While some say lockdown will be extended with eased restrictions, others say a few new rules will be announced without affecting economic activities. “Both lives and livelihood will be taken care of,” they added.
In the virtual meeting on Monday, Modi said that we must understand that the world has fundamentally changed post Covid-19. “Now the world will be Pre-Corona, Post-Corona just like in the case of the World Wars. And this would entail significant changes in how we function.”
Modi said that the new way of life would be on the principle of “Jan Se lekar Jag Tak”, from an individual to the whole of humanity, the PMO said.
The Prime Minister thanked the Chief Ministers for their proactive role in the country’s fight against COVID-19 and for their valuable suggestions emanating out of their grass root level experience.
“Even as we look at the gradual withdrawal of the lockdown, we should constantly remember that till we do not find a vaccine or a solution, the biggest weapon with us to the fight the virus is social distancing,” he said.
Modi reaffirmed the importance of ‘Do Gaz Ki doori’ and added that suggestion of night curfew raised by many CMs would surely reaffirm the feeling of caution among people. He requested all the Chief Ministers for specific feedback on lockdown.
“We will need an all-encompassing approach to deal with various challenges that will arise before us. With the onset of monsoon, there will be proliferation of many non-COVID-19 diseases, for which we must prepare and strengthen our medical and health systems,” he stated.
Modi said he saw potential for domestic tourism but we need to think of the contours of the same. He asked the policymakers to also keep in mind how to embrace new models of teaching and learning in the education sector.
Referring to the twin objectives, he said, “We can now focus our strategy in this battle against coronavirus, as should be the case. We have a two-fold challenge—to reduce the transmission rate of the disease, and to increase public activity gradually, while adhering to all the guidelines. We will have to work towards achieving both these objectives.”