'There will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes for 21 days,' Modi said in a televised address. India - which has a population of 1.3 bn - joins a list of countries that have imposed similar measures. Nearly 400,000 people have tested positive for the virus worldwide, and around 17,000 have died. The new measures follow a sharp increase in cases in recent days. There have been 519 confirmed cases in India and 10 reported deaths.
'To save India, to save its every citizen, you, your family... every street, every neighbourhood is being put under lockdown.' Modi warned that if India does not 'handle these 21 days well, then our country... will go backwards by 21 years. This is a curfew. We will have to pay the economic cost of this but [it] is the responsibility of everyone.'
At www.bbc.co.uk
