New Delhi [India], April 3 : Former Indian Kabaddi skipper Ajay Thakur urged everyone to follow the ongoing 21-day lockdown seriously to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Thakur was one of the athletes who interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video conferencing and talked about the current situation in the country.
"Today morning PM interacted with us and appealed to follow the lockdown strictly. He said coronavirus has badly affected many countries in the world. We can only win this battle if we take proper precautions. I want to urge you all that please take this lockdown seriously and stay safe," Thakur told .
PM further asked them to include the following five points in their message to people: 'sankalp' to fight the pandemic, 'sanyam' to follow social distancing, 'sakaratmakta' to maintain positivity, 'samman' to respect the frontline soldiers in this battle including the medical fraternity, the police personnel etc and 'sahyog' at the personal level as well as at national level through contribution to PM-CARES fund. He also asked them to highlight the importance of both physical and mental fitness and also popularize guidelines released by AYUSH Ministry.
Modi held a meeting via video conference with 40 elite sportspersons of the country including Indian captain Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Mary Kom on the ongoing situation in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This is the first time that the PM has interacted with sports personalities since the 21-day lockdown was enforced on March 24 to contain the spread of the virus.
The other prominent people included PT Usha, Pullela Gopichand, Vishwanathan Anand, Hima Das, Bajrang Punia, PV Sindhu, Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, and Cheteshwar Pujara.
( With inputs from ANI )