A post doing the rounds of social media claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has announced a 7-day nationwide lockdown from today (March 21). Schools and colleges will be closed again, the post claims. The final decision was taken at a meeting chaired by PM Modi, it added. Meanwhile, the government has clarified that the post is fake.
"It is being claimed in a fake picture that from March 21, the decision of Bharat Bandh has been taken across the country for the next 7 days. This claim is fake. The decision of Bharat Bandh has not been taken by the Central Government," tweeted Press Information Bureau's (PIB) fact checking arm 'PIB Fact Check'.
This fake message is being circulated at a time when the COVID-19 cases are at the lowest in the country.
On Monday, India saw a single-day rise of 1,549 new coronavirus infections, taking the infection tally to 4,30,09,390, while the active cases have further declined to 25,106, the Union health ministry said.
The COVID-19 death toll has climbed to 5,16,510 with 31 daily fatalities, the ministry data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.06 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.74 per cent, the health ministry said.
A reduction of 1,134 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.40 per cent and weekly positivity rate at 0.40 per cent, according to the health ministry.
The last 24 hours saw a total of 3,84,499 COVID-19 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 78.30 crore cumulative tests.
(With PTI inputs)
