Yahoo News India announces country-wide lockdown of 1.3 billion people in world's biggest coronavirus stay-at-home order yet
India is to go into total lockdown for 21 days in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The move marks the world's most extensive stay-at-home order yet, affecting 1.3 billion residents across the country.
Prime minister Narendra Modi said the extreme restrictions were necessary to "to save India" from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Announcing the historic measures in a televised address on Tuesday, Mr Modi said: "To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes."
He added that if the public failed to comply with the rules over the 21-day period, would be "set back by 21 years".
Indian health officials have reported 469 cases of the virus and 10 deaths so far.
Around three-quarters of the country were under lockdown on Tuesday prior to Mr Modi's announcement, with trains and bus services suspended across different states.
The new nationwide measures are set to come into force at midnight local time.
It comes as researchers predict that more than a million people could be infected with the disease in the country within eight weeks.
A health official in the western state of Maharashtra said new cases were starting to appear in small towns after a first wave emerged in big cities like Mumbai, Al Jazeera reported.
"This trend is worrying as rural areas have limited infrastructure to deal with the outbreak," the official, who has not been identified, told the news site.
A team of scientists, based mainly in the US, have warned that India's tally of infections could surge to 1.3 million by mid-May if the virus continues to spread at its current rate.
"Even with the best-case scenarios, probably, you are in a very painful crisis," Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, warned.
