India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to extend the world's biggest pandemic lockdown for two weeks, state ministers said after talks on Saturday.
The three-week nationwide lockdown was to end on Tuesday. With the death toll rising, several chief ministers from India's 29 states and territories have pressed Mr Modi to prolong restrictions for the 1.3 billion population.
Two states – Odisha and Punjab – have already extended the lockdown by about two weeks, but critics said a nationwide lockdown was needed to stop people moving between states and perhaps taking the virus with them.
India has reported about 8,500 cases and 290 deaths, but the government said there was no community transmission.
Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Mr Modi had taken the "correct decision" by extending the lockdown.
"Today, India's position is better than many developed countries because we started (the) lockdown early. If it is stopped now, all gains would be lost," Mr Kejriwal posted on Twitter after the meeting.
Other ministers who took part in the video conference talks told media the lockdown would go on for another two weeks.
The government made no immediate announcement, and officials said Mr Modi may not make a statement until Sunday.
According to reports, the Hindu-nationalist government was worried about the impact of the restrictions and ban on international flights on the economy, which was slowing even before the pandemic crisis blew up.
Millions of people have lost jobs in the past three weeks, and the lockdown sparked a mass migration as workers headed for their home villages.
Every state has now declared a coronavirus case, but Maharashtra, which includes the financial capital Mumbai, has been among the worst hit. The western state accounted for more than 1,600 cases and more than 110 deaths in India's total.
The coronavirus is spreading in Mumbai's Dharavi district, one of Asia's biggest slums.
Mumbai council spokesman Vijay Khabale-Patil said that more cases had been uncovered at "extensive medical camps in Dharavi and other areas of Mumbai to test more people".
He said there were now 28 cases in the slum and three people had died there.
The capital, Delhi, has reported a growing toll with more than 180 cases declared on Friday, taking the total to 865.
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Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.