Minutes after addressing the nation on the extension of lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday changed his profile picture on Twitter.
In his new picture, PM Modi was seen covering his mouth and nose with a ‘gamcha’ (towel-like cloth) popular in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, to protect himself from the ill-effects of the deadly coronavirus.
The white coloured ‘gamcha’ has a red border placed alongside a black and white pattern.
In his address to the nation at 10 am, he started his speech with ‘namaste’ in the same appearance but removed the gamcha, which might be due to the blocking of his voice while speaking.
PM’s new picture wearing a gamcha could be a message to the nation that there is no need to ‘rush’ or get ‘panic’ for masks as a normal gamcha could itself be an efficient tool in the corona battle.
Government has already been active in promoting home-made solutions like making masks at home through spare cotton clothes.
Earlier, during his video conference with the state Chief Ministers on Saturday, PM was seen wearing a homemade mask.
Today, it was the third televised address of the Prime Minister in a month. PM Modi announced the extension of lockdown till May 3 and urged the people to follow all the norms enthusiastically.
He said that there will be a ‘strict’ lockdown till April 20, which might be relaxed area-wise depending upon the cases in that particular area.
This is the second consecutive phase of nationwide lockdown as the previous one was of 21 days announced on March 24 coming in effect from midnight of March 25 till April 14.
Earlier, it was anticipated that the lockdown will be extended till April 30, but it stretched till May 3. Some reports citing government sources said that the stretch was due to May 1 being a public holiday and May 2 and May 3 being Saturday and Sunday respectively.
India has seen a major surge in the coronavirus cases in the last 3 weeks as it started from around 550 when the lockdown was announced but it has spiked to nearly 9000, as of now.