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New Delhi: On a day when several states announced or hinted at lockdowns, night curfew and other restrictions as India’s active COVID-19 cases crossed 20 lakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a televised address that the country needs to be saved from a lockdown. On Tuesday, April 20, as many as 2,59,170 new coronavirus infections were noted and a record 1,761 new fatalities. “I request state governments to think of the lockdown as a last option and instead focus on micro containment zones,” he said. He asked youngsters to form committees in their neighbourhoods to ensure that COVID-19 guidelines are maintained. Without mentioning events involving enormous crowds like the Kumbh Mela endorsed by BJP leaders and election rallies in West Bengal – where he has been campaigning aggressively – Modi spent a significant portion of his 20-minute speech stressing that the country is better prepared to tackle the “second wave which has come as a storm” than it was last time. “Last year we did not have corona-specific medical infrastructure…we did not have labs, there had been no PPE production, or any knowhow on the disease,” he said. However, the Modi government had in fact, allowed the export of crucial items of the PPE until days before the March lockdown as The Wire had then reported. “We are trying that livelihoods are affected least. The opening up of the vaccination drive will ensure that workers in the cities will be able to be vaccinated. He stressed that migrant workers must be encouraged to remain where they are, by state governments. “Tell them that they will get the vaccine in whichever city they are in and their work will also go on,” Modi said. Modi’s announcement of the lockdown last year, with a four-hour notice, had left migrant workers with little option but to walk home from cities – leading to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. With medical infrastructure and supplies grappling with the shortage – especially of medical oxygen – the prime minister said efforts were being made to distribute one lakh oxygen cylinders, build new oxygen plants and have the ‘Oxygen Express’ reach places where it needs to. “We are working on the oxygen crisis,” Modi said. He however, did not mention the plight of thousands of people with no recourse but to run from pillar to post over medical oxygen. When the Prime Minister’s Office had tweeted at 8.05 pm that Modi will address the nation in 40 minutes’ time, his tweet was greeted with requests from people to help secure oxygen, remdesivir injections and hospital beds. Modi extolled the fact that India has been abled to vaccinate 12 crore people and has the cheapest COVID-19 vaccine in the world. “The pharma sector has also increased production of medicines, in comparison with January and February. I spoke to pharma experts yesterday…we are lucky we have such a strong pharma sector,” he said. Modi also repeated his government’s announcement from yesterday, that those above 18 years would get the vaccine. “Fifty percent of the vaccines would be sent to state governments and hospitals,” Modi said, adding that the government will be disseminating free vaccines in government hospitals for the poor. Also read: ‘Recipe for Exclusion’: CPI(M), Congress Slam Centre’s New Vaccine Policy The prime minister thanked healthcare workers, law enforcement and sanitation workers for their service and condoled the loss of lives in the pandemic. Modi has addressed the nation a number of times during the COVID-19 crisis. The most significant of them, on March 24, was the announcement of the nationwide lockdown with a notice of four hours.

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‘We Need to Save the Nation from Lockdown’: PM Modi Asks Migrant Workers to Stay Put

April 21, 2021

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New Delhi: On a day when several states announced or hinted at lockdowns, night curfew and other restrictions as India’s active COVID-19 cases crossed 20

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18-yr-old boy dies by suicide in central Kashmir’s Budgam

April 21, 2021

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Srinagar, Apr 21: An eighteen-year-old boy ended his life by allegedly died by suicide by consuming some poisonous substance at his home in Shogpora

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COVID-19: Israel Fully Vaccinates Majority, No Longer Needs People To Wear Masks Outdoors

April 21, 2021

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Pedestrians walk on a boulevard after Israel rescinded its mandate to wear face masks outdoors, in Tel Aviv, April 18, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen

New Delhi: A day after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to New Delhi was cancelled, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled travel to Portugal and France has also been formally axed due to the “COVID-19 situation”. “In view of the COVID-19 situation, it has been decided, in consultation with the EU and Portuguese leadership, to hold the India-EU Leaders’ Meeting in a virtual format on 8 May 2021,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stated on Tuesday. This effectively means that Indian prime minister will not be travelling to Portugal for the summit. His bilateral visit to France has also been cancelled, as he was supposed to travel to Paris from Porto. “The India-EU Leaders’ Meeting in the EU+27 format, the first time that such a meeting is being held, reflects the shared ambition of both sides to further deepen the Strategic Partnership,” he said. The 27 EU leaders who were scheduled to be travelling to Porto for the physical summit would still be congregating at the venue, but the Indian prime minister will be joining virtually from New Delhi. Among the big deliverables of the India-EU summit is the launch of negotiations of two separate agreements on trade and investment. Earlier, UK and India announced simultaneously that Prime Minister Johnson’s visit to India next week had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. There will instead be a virtual India-UK summit on April 26. The Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was also supposed to visit India in the next few weeks, as per several media reports. There has been no public announcement of the visit, so it is not clear if it will be formally called off.

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PM Modi’s Visits to Portugal, France Called off; India-EU Summit to Be Virtual

April 21, 2021

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New Delhi: A day after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to New Delhi was cancelled, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled to travel to Portugal

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Maharashtra Cabinet in Favour of ‘Strict Lockdown’, Announcement Likely on April 21

April 21, 2021

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Mumbai: The Maharashtra cabinet favors a “strict lockdown” and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is likely to make an announcement in this regard on Wednesday, a