PM Modi to address nation at 6 pm; here's a quick recap of his last 6 addresses since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address the nation at 6 pm on October 20. "Will be sharing a message with my fellow citizens at 6 PM this evening," the Prime Minister announced in his tweet without revealing what the address will be about.

Modi’s address comes amid on-going border tensions with China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.

In a recent interview, Home Minister Amit Shah spoke about the border tension and said, "I will repeat the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are on guard and no one can snatch even an inch of our territory from us."

Since the COVID-19 outbreak in March, PM Modi has made six such addresses to the nation in which he spoke about various measures being taken to curb the COVID-19 spread and also announced economic and welfare packages.

This would be the Prime Minister’s seventh address to the nation since the outbreak of the pandemic.

In his last such address on June 30, PM Modi had announced extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) for another five months.

In his address on May 12, he had announced a Rs 20 lakh crore financial package to boost the economy recovering from the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown.

While in his March 19 address, the prime minister announced a “janta curfew” across India on March 22. On March 24, he announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown. He announced the extension of the lockdown to May 3 on April 14. The lockdown was then further extended till May 17 by the home ministry.

Meanwhile, on April 3, PM Modi asked the nation to light lamps for frontline corona warriors on April 5.

Now, the country is in the phase five of ‘Unlock’ announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on September 30, further relaxing curbs on activities outside of containment zones.

Meanwhile, India posted its lowest daily coronavirus caseload in nearly four months, data from the health ministry showed on October 20, as new cases maintained a decreasing trend from a peak in September, reported News18.

The country reported 46,790 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking its tally to nearly 7.6 million – the second-highest behind the US. It also reported 587 deaths, taking the total to 1,15,197.