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Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address nation at 5pm
The Prime Minister's address will come on a day several states and Union territories began unlocking from Covid-19 induced lockdowns or lockdown-like curbs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 5pm on Monday, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) announced in a tweet.
"Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi will address the nation at 5pm today, 7th June," tweeted PMO India.
While it is not yet clear what Prime Minister Modi will address the nation on, his address will come on a day when several states unlocked further from individual Covid-19 restrictions which were imposed to break the chain of transmission of the virus. While Capital Delhi began a second phase of unlock from a lockdown which has been in place since April 19, Maharashtra -- with the highest Covid-19 caseload -- began a "five-tier" unlock from lockdown-like restrictions. The state's capital, India's financial hub Mumbai, has been categorised under level three.
When PM Modi last addressed the nation, on April 20, daily Covid-19 cases were nearing the 300,000-mark while more than 2,000 deaths were being recorded in a single-day. In the following days, the daily cases rose to more than 300,000 and subsequently 400,000 while single-day fatalities were close to or above 4,000.
In recent days, however, the daily cases and deaths have both seen a steady dip; fresh infections, though, continue to be the above the 100,000-mark. On Monday morning, the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) data showed an addition of 100,636 cases and 2427 related deaths. This was the lowest single-day rise in more than two months, or 61 days.
