NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday thanked his fellow citizens for observing the COVID-19 quarantine and called for national unity and solidarity amid the spread of disease, which has now claimed over 2,300 cases in India.
Modi asked Indians to observe self-isolation on March 22 and then next day extended the measure for another three weeks, until April 14.
"Now that tens of millions of people are in their homes, some of them might wonder as to how they are going to fight COVID-19 all alone. But please remember, none of us are alone. The strength of 1.3 billion Indians is with each of us," Modi said in a nationwide address, calling upon the people to "go to the light from the darkness created by the coronavirus."
In particular, the prime minister called on fellow citizens to turn off the lights in their homes at 9 p.m. (15:30 GMT) for 9 minutes on Sunday and turn on oil lamps, candles and phone flashes instead, as a symbol of their collective fight against COVID-19.
The COVID-19 toll in India has increased to 2,301 cases, as of Friday, including 56 fatalities and 156 recoveries, according to the Indian Health Ministry. The dynamics of the past two days saw the number of cases increase from 1,637 on Wednesday to 1,965 on Thursday.
The majority of COVID-19 cases are concentrated in the central Maharashtra state (335), followed by the southeastern Tamil Nadu state (309) and neighboring Kerala state (286). In the capital of New Delhi, 67 new cases were discovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 219.
