Armed forced conducted a mega exercise with flypasts by fighter jets across the country.
Expressing gratitude to healthcare workers and other coronavirus frontline "warriors", the armed forced today conducted a mega exercise with flypasts by fighter jets over state capitals, aerial flower shower and performances by military bands outside hospitals across the country.
The mega drill started with laying of flowers by the three service chiefs at the police memorial in Delhi to honour police personnel deployed for enforcement of the nationwide lockdown.
In Delhi, Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguars flew very low over Rajpath and showered flowers over the India Gate and Red Fort. Besides, C-130 transport aircraft followed a similar route.
A similar exercise was conducted over Srinagar's Dal Lake, Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake and Lucknow.
In Mumbai -- one of the worst-hit by coronavirus, fighter jets flew over the Marine Drive and dropped petals over the King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital and Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, among others.
The COVID-19 ''warriors'' were seen taking videos and photos from their mobile phones while some others clapped.
This is the third "gesture of special gratitude" to honour doctors, paramedics, sanitation staff and other front-line workers battling coronavirus. The show of gratitude started in March with Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting people to clap from balconies. A week later, there was the show of solidarity with candle light.
This morning, India reported its biggest single-day jump in the number of coronavirus patients with 2,644 new cases in the last 24 hours, including 83 deaths - also the highest - taking the total to 39,980 cases and 1,301 deaths.
The nationwide lockdown is set to ease from tomorrow in parts of the country that have been identified as "orange" and "green" zones or areas least affected by the pandemic. Strict restrictions will continue in worst-hit districts marked as "Red Zones".