The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has termed a report claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make an announcement on on the extension of lockdown on his radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ as speculative. The ministry on his Twitter account shared a report that said the prime minister will address the nation through ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on May 31, which is the last day of the fourth phase of coronavirus-enforced lockdown. During the programme, he “may throw some light on Lockdown 5.0”, said the report citing its sources. The report further claimed that the fifth phase of the lockdown will mainly focus on 11 cities with 70 percent of the total coronavirus cases in India. It will include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Thane, Indore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Surat and Kolkata. “The Centre may also consider allowing religious places to be reopened in Lockdown 5.0 but with certain conditions,” the report stated. However, the MHA said, “The quoted story claims to have inside details about Lockdown 5, from MHA Sources. All claims made therein are mere speculations by the reporter. To attribute them to MHA is incorrect and being irresponsible.” The ministry added hashtags #FactCheck and #FakeNewsAlert in the post. PM Modi had announced the first phase of nationwide lockdown from March 24 midnight in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the nationwide lockdown has been extended three times till May 31 due to the increasing positive cases of the novel coronavirus across the country. The number of COVID-19 cases in India climbed to 1,58,333 and the death toll touched 4,531, as per data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on May 28. Globally, the COVID-19 has affected over 56 lakh people and at least 3.55 lakh people have died so far from the deadly disease.
