Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be addressing the nation at 8 pm on Tuesday amid the floating speculations on the lockdown extension and the road ahead for the nation beyond May 17 in its fight against the Coronavirus pandemic.

The nation has entered the final phase of 54-day complete lockdown on Monday and it's just five days ahead of marking the deadline of the extended lockdown. However, it has highly been anticipated that the lockdown would be replaced and renewed by the extension of what would become the third such extension of the unprecedented experiment. 

According to the reports, the nationwide lockdown would likely be extended for the third time beyond May 17 and if extended, the nation would end its peak summer days under the lockdown. The road map for moving the nation ahead was largely formulated during the fifth episode of the virtual meeting between the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers that held on Monday. 

The virtual meeting had lasted for six hours during which the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers worked out on how the nation would look like the deadline of the current lockdown to contain the proliferation of the COVID-19 cases. As we reported earlier, some of the Chief Ministers had appealed to the Center to extend the lockdown while some other states had asked not to resume the transportation channels in the states until the pandemic comes under control.

The Central government has instructed the Chief Ministers to outline their suggestions on pedaling forward in tackling the spread. The reports stated that the Center would pour more relaxations in the areas that are not severely affected. Some of the restrictions like a night curfew from 7 pm to 7 am and ban on the public transports would likely continue in the Red zones, which are designated to have more affected cases. 

During the meeting, the Prime Minister asserted that the complete exit from the lockdown at one shot is not possible at this juncture and the lockdown would be staying in place in some form to contain the spread of the virus while the government aims to revive the economic activities. Modi signaled that the lockdown might be extended but the measures rolled out in the third phase not needed in the fourth phase. 

Many states had echoed favorable voices towards resuming the economic activities across the regions apart from the containment zones. Modi said that the Center and the states should work to achieve the twin objectives of reducing the transmission rate of the virus and the resuming the public activities.

The Prime Minister reiterated that the governments must protect the rural areas from having the grounds for COVID-19 spread as most of the rural areas haven't been affected by the pandemic. The government has been levied with the burden of balancing the economic crisis and health crisis as the nation must resuscitate the ailing economy by not compromising the fight against the COVID-19.

At the current stage, the lockdown may be extended by providing relaxations in the orange and green zones and letting the resumptions of the operations. The lockdown would stay active in the red zones, hotspots, and containment zones which have been reporting more COVID-19 cases. According to the Union Health Ministry, India has 130 districts under the red zone, 284 districts under the orange zone, and 319 districts under the green zone.

If extended, it would be the third extended spell of the lockdown. The Central government has declared the nationwide lockdown on March 24th and it was imposed for 21 days till April 14th and in the wake of the soaring cases, the Central government has extended the lockdown for the first time from April 14th to May 3rd and it was again extended for the second time till May 17th.

Also read: 'This is not possible' - PM Modi during the meet with the Chief Ministers!