Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged people to take the coronavirus more seriously for the safety of their friends and families. In a tweet, PM Modi said that there are people who are still taking the lockdown lightly and urged the state governments to ensure that the implementation is good. The tweet came a day after the country observed a Janta Curfew but the number of cases in India continued to increase. 

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"Some people are still not taking the lockdown seriously. Please save yourself and your families, follow the instructions seriously. I request respective state governments to ensure the people follow rules and obey laws,” the PM tweeted.

Lockdown has been imposed in several parts of the country as the number of cases have surpassed 400. The Union government on Sunday announced that all passenger trains, and inter-state bus and Metro rail services would remain suspended till March 31.

Meanwhile, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) has written to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to seek economic relief for the restaurant industry in view of the disruption caused by the coronavirus scare in the country.

Anurag Katriar, President of NRAI, said on Monday that the restaurant industry with an annual turnover of around Rs 4 lakh crore and providing direct employment to over 70 lakh people was in a very precarious situation, fighting a grim battle for its survival.

"We have written to the Finance Minister and urged for financial relief at such a crucial time. While preventing loss of direct jobs is our prime concern, we are also concerned about the dreams of many young entrepreneurs in the sector getting shattered due to this calamity," he said.

The demands include pay cover for its marginal employees, deferment of all statutory dues at central and state levels, moratorium on bank loans recovery, restoration of input tax credit on goods and services tax (GST) for the sector and a general invocation of force majeure clause.