NEW DELHI: India's nationwide Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak lockdown, the biggest in the world, will be extended until at least May 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday (April 14).
The current three-week-old lockdown of the nation of 1.3 billion people had been scheduled to end at midnight Tuesday.
But with some of the most crowded cities on the planet, there are fears that numbers could skyrocket and overwhelm shaky healthcare systems. But at the same time, the lockdown in place since March 25, with strict limits on activity, has been devastating for the economy -- and for India's poor. Others have been stranded in cities in cramped, unsanitary conditions where the virus could spread quickly.Farmers have complained of a lack of workers to harvest crops while snarl-ups of thousands of trucks not allowed to move because of the lockdown have hampered food transport.
The national restaurants association, which said its members employed seven million people, warned Monday there could be"social unrest" if it did not receive financial relief. Some analysts have predicted growth could slump to 1.5-2.0% this year -- way below the level needed to provide jobs for the millions coming into the labour market each month.
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