Coronavirus lockdown: PM Modi to address the nation at 10 am today

The center faced growing calls for less sweeping curbs as an anxious nation awaited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address on the last day of the 21-day lockdown on Tuesday amid indications of a two-week extension to try halt the spread of coronavirus with a record 51 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

As expectations mounted that the prime minister may dwell on plans to restart economic activities in a graded manner, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh on Monday formally announced an extension of the lockdown till April 30 taking to eight the number of states adopting this step. The other states are Odisha, Punjab, Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal and Karnataka. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 10am on 14th April 2020," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) tweeted.

Prime Minister @narendramodi will address the nation at 10 AM on 14th April 2020.

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 13, 2020

796 new COVID-19 cases and 35 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 9,152 and deaths to 308.Addressing a press briefing here, Joint Secretary in the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said.

Twenty-five districts across 15 states where COVID-19 infections were detected earlier have reported no new cases in the last 14 days and the credit for it goes to the proper implementation of containment strategies by the district administrations, Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

These districts have no case reported since the last 14 days and constant vigil is being maintained to ensure that no new cases may occur in future," he said. The districts are Gondia (Maharashtra), Raj Nand Gaon (Chhattisgarh), Davangiri (Karnataka), South Goa, Wayanad and Kottayam (Kerala), West Imphal (Manipur), Rajouri (J&K), Aizwal West (Mizoram), Mahe in Puducherry, SBS Nagar in Punjab, Patna, Nalanda and Munger in Bihar, Pratapgarh in Rajasthan, Panipat, Rohtak and Sirsa in Haryana, Pauri Garhwal in Uttrakhand and Bhadradari Kothagudem in Telangana.

However, according to a PTI tally based on reports from states, there were 9,594 positive cases and 335 deaths. Fifty-one deaths were reported since Sunday evening, of which 22 were from Maharashtra, seven each from Madhya Pradesh and Telangana, five from Delhi, four from Gujarat, two from West Bengal and one each from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, according to the Health ministry. Of the total 324 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 149 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 43, Gujarat at 26, Delhi at 24 and Telangana at 16,it said. Accounting for 11 deaths each, Punjab and Tamil Nadu were the other states which reported more than 10 fatalities