PM Narendra Modi to address nation at 8 pm today, unveil Lockdown 4.0 strategy

A day after six-hour-long deliberations with 30 Chief Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the nation on Tuesday night to unveil the next strategy for fighting the pandemic COVID-19 after the end of Lockdown 3.0 on May 17.

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As per a tweet from the Prime Minister’s Office, Modi will be addressing the nation at 8 pm today evening. In his fourth lockdown address, the Prime Minister is likely to reach out to states, which will be given a larger role in deciding the combat criteria for COVID-19 during Lockdown 4.0 after May 17.

Many of the Chief Ministers, including those who could not speak during the six-hour-long meeting on Monday, have been asked to submit their views in writing to the Centre by May 15.

In the meeting, Modi had said that he continued to feel optimistic when not even a single state sounded despondent and that this collective determination would make India win in its fight against COVID-19.

The COVID-19 positive cases breached the 70,000-mark on Tuesday (May 12) despite nearly 50 days of lockdown so far. There is now a clear understanding in the government that there is a need to tweak the strategy to ensure that the economy does not go into an irreversible tailspin and the fight for life does not finish the possibility of livelihood in a way that it starts affecting lives substantially.

In the meeting, while a number of Chief Ministers batted for another spell of lockdown, most wanted this round of lockdown to stay confined to containment zones with an impetus on accelerating economic activities in other areas to keep the engine of development running.

Several of the states pointed out that with the return of migrants, there is a need to concentrate on strict implementation of social distancing guidelines, usage of masks and sanitisation in order to curb the spread of fresh infections, especially in rural areas.

In the interaction with CMs, Modi said, “We now have a reasonably clear indication as to the geographical spread of the pandemic in India, including the worst-affected areas. Moreover, over the past few weeks, officials have understood operating procedures in a time such as this, right up to the district level.”

He said that this understanding of the spread of COVID-19 would help the country in having a focussed fight against it.

“And therefore, we can now further 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, and we will have to work towards achieving both these objectives,” he said.

Modi said that the effort now should be to stop COVID-19 from spreading to rural areas.

The prime minister said the suggestions made by the states for a roadmap on the economy have been given due consideration.

Modi said that we must understand that the world had fundamentally changed post-COVID-19. "Now, the world will be pre-corona, post-corona just like the case of the World Wars," he said. "And this would entail significant changes in how we function." He 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 prime minister said that we must all plan for the new reality.

“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 fight the virus is social distancing,” he said.

He requested all the chief ministers to provide specific feedback on the lockdown. “I request you all to share with me by May 15, a broad strategy on how each one of you would want to deal with the lockdown regime in your particular states. I want states to make a blueprint on how to deal with various nuances during and after the gradual easing of the lockdown,” he said.

The prime minister said that 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 a proliferation of many non-COVID-19 diseases, for which we must prepare and strengthen our medical and health systems. He asked the policymakers to also keep in mind how to embrace new models of teaching and learning in the education sector.

The prime minister also expressed concern about the migrant issue in particular as millions want to march back to their home towns. A number of them died in accidents, including 16 who were mowed down on railway tracks in Maharashtra. Modi may also speak on the need for migrants to reach their homes safely, besides creating employment opportunities for them in cities as well as back in their home towns.