Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the nation on Tuesday, which has become the fourth prime ministerial address, concerning the Coronavirus outbreak. He appeared before the nation and began his address at 10 am amid the nationwide speculations on the lockdown extension in the wake of the rapid spread of the pandemic in the country. 

His address has come on the last day of the 21-days lockdown period that was imposed on March 24th. The current spell of the unprecedented lockdown will come to an end on Tuesday -April 14th and earlier the Central government has highly been considering to extend the nationwide lockdown for two more weeks to ensure that the grip of the fight against the virus doesn't get loosened and it was speculated that the government would relax some of the restrictions to repair the plunging economy.

As expected, Prime Minister Modi has announced that the nationwide lockdown has been extended. In his address, he stated that the complete lockdown will be in place till May 3rd, 2020. Through his announcement, the Central government has certainly let the lockdown and embargo to play its role for more than two weeks from now by keeping the restrictions and prohibitions alive. According to ANI, Modi said that "People have gone through hardships to save India. I know how many difficulties you faced. I respectfully bow to the people of India for their sacrifice".

He stated that India had begun screening the passengers even the country hadn't reported with a single positive case for the virus as the nation didn't wait for the problem to escalate, instead, the government tried to stop by initiating swift decisions. The government has imposed 21-days-lockdown when the country had 550 cases and India mandated all those who returned from abroad to remain under 14 days. Modi asserted that all the states, districts, and the localities will be closely monitored until April 20th on how they are implementing the guidelines after which the decisions can be made on relaxing the restrictions. He divulged that the severe restrictions would be reinforced if the rules of the lockdown found to be broken and if the virus has a rampant spread. He appealed to the people not to be careless in containing the spread of the pandemic.

The states which won't report with an increase in the hotspots would be permitted to resume some of the essential services with having certain guidelines and conditions. The Prime Minister assured that the Central and the state governments are working together to ensure that farmers face minimal problems. Modi further stated that the Central government would be issuing extensive guidelines on the renewed lockdown on Wednesday.

Till 20th April, all districts, localities, states will be closely monitored, as to how strictly they are implementing norms. States which will not let hotspots increase, they could be allowed to let some important activities resume, but with certain conditions: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/tL2YOBxe7u

— ANI (@ANI) April 14, 2020

His address had lasted nearly thirty minutes and has come at a crucial time when the government has been reeling to stem the spread of Coronavirus. His address has echoed what most of the Chief Ministers placed during the virtual meeting that held on last Saturday - asking the Center to extend the lockdown. According to the reports, the Central government will likely split up the country into red, orange, and green zones based on the reporting of the COVID-19 positive cases and the government would permit limited services in these areas. 

According to the Union Health Ministry, India has reported 10,363 positive cases so far as of Tuesday morning of which 1,036 patients have been recovered while 339 patients have succumbed to the virus. In the last 24 hours, India reported more than 90 cases in its territory and surging cases each day resulted in the extension of the lockdown till May 3rd, 2020.