India Army Thank Doctors, Health Teams This Way

This morning, Military aircrafts in India flew low over more than 12 cities as part of a national campaign launched by the armed forces to thank health workers and other essential services workers fighting the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

India has so far reported nearly 40,000 cases of infections  and more than 1,300 deaths amid general isolation measures for weeks across the country to contain the spread of the epidemic.

In the southern city of Bangalore, local television showed an air force helicopter scattering flowers at Victoria Hospital, while doctors and other medical workers, dressed in protective clothing and masks, chanted with the band playing.

In the financial capital, Mumbai, television showed scenes of fighter planes flying over the famous Marine Drive, which runs parallel to the Arabian Sea while some residents stood to see the scene from their balconies.

Later Sunday, navy and coast guard ships will line up over 30 locations on the Indian coast, and some ships will launch illuminated bombs.

On his part, the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday thanked the armed forces for paying tributes to all frontline workers battling the novel coronavirus outbreak in India. "I thank the Armed Forces for their special initiatives like flypasts, showering flower petals and several other performances to express gratitude towards medical professionals, police and other frontline warriors," tweeted Rajnath Singh.

India has been under a nationwide lockdown for the last 37 days. The lockdown began on March 25 and was supposed to end on April 14 after a 21-day period. However, as new Covid-19 cases continued to rise alarmingly, the Centre and state governments decided to extend the lockdown to May 3, today.

This is the biggest lockdown anywhere in the world with close to 1.3 billion people confined to their homes, the economy disrupted, and thousands of migrant workers stranded across the country.