PM Modi interacts with sportspersons, gives 'five point mantra' to tackle COVID-19

Modi interacted with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, Indian cricket board president Sourav Ganguly, Women's Hockey team captain Rani Rampal, badminton player PV Sindhu, Kabaddi player and DSP in Himanchal Pradesh Police Ajay Thakur, sprinter Hima Das, para athlete high jumper Sharad Kumar, tennis player Ankita Raina, former cricketer Yuvraj Singh and India's Men’s cricket team captain Virat Kohli via video conference.

The Prime MInister said that COVID-19 is an adversary of the entire humanity and the gravity of the situation can be ascertained from the fact that for the first time since World War II, the Olympics has been postponed. 

Praising the sportspersons for bringing glory to the nation through stellar performances on the field, he said, "Now they have a very important role to play in boosting the morale of the nation as well as spreading the message of social distancing along with asking people to continuously follow advisories given during lockdown."

The Prime Minister has asked them to include the following five points in their message to people: ‘sankalp’ to fight the pandemic, ‘sanyam’ to follow social distancing, ‘sakaratmakta’ to maintain positivity, ‘samman’ to respect the frontline soldiers in this battle including the medical fraternity, the police personnel etc and ‘sahyog’ at personal level as well as at national level through contribution to PM-CARES fund.

He also asked them to highlight the importance of both physical and mental fitness and also popularise guidelines released by AYUSH Ministry. 

On the 10th day of a three-week massive unprecedented lockdown on Friday, Modi in his morning address asked people at 9 pm on Sunday (Apr 5) to switch off lights at their houses, stand at the doorsteps or balconies and light candles or switch on mobile flashlights for nine minutes to stand united as a nation. 

To stem the spread of Novel Coronavirus, Modi on Mar 24 had asked 1.3 billion people of the country to stay indoors for 21 days announcing a nationwide lockdown which will end on Apr 14 midnight.

As of now, the government has no plan to extend the lockdown but Modi on Thursday told the Chief Ministers that a strategy has to be chalked out to lift restrictions in phasewise ensuring a staggered movement of people post Apr 14 midnight.

(Image Credit: PIB Twitter)