Fortune Article

Hello, readers.

A nation with 1.3 billion people has now ordered a lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is mandating a three-week (at minimum) national lockdown after several Indian states had already implemented such measures. In a press conference, he played up the importance of social distancing, especially in a country with such heavy population density.

“You have seen the worldwide situations arising from the coronavirus pandemic in the news. You have also seen how the most powerful nations have become helpless in the face of this pandemic,” Modi said on Tuesday, according to CNN, warning that “many families will be destroyed forever” if drastic measures aren’t enacted.

Those measures resemble what some states and cities in the U.S. have enacted, including encouraging people to limit their contact with the outside world other than essential utility, grocery, and medical services.

So there you have it—the second most populous country in the world, is shutting down.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy

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