Amid a spike in Covid cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday conducted a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of the states to review the coronavirus situation in the country. The decision to hold the meeting was taken after the Union Minister of Health stated that there was a sharp increase of cases in India.
PM Modi asked the states and union territories to maintain the economy’s momentum and focus on local containment while making strategies to check the spread of Covid-19. “While making any strategy, it is very important to keep in mind that there should be minimum damage to the livelihood of the common people, economic activities, and momentum of the economy should be maintained. So, it would be better to focus more on local containment,” the Prime Minister said.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister stressed that governments should be in a position to provide maximum treatment in home isolation situations and for that home isolation guidelines should keep on improving and should be strictly followed. He said that the use of tele-medicine facilities in treatment will help a great deal.
The Prime Minister noted that India’s battle with the biggest pandemic in 100 years has now entered its third year. “Hard work is our only path and victory is our only option. We, 130 crore people of India, will surely emerge victorious against corona with our efforts,” he said.
The Prime Minister said the earlier confusion about Omicron is slowly getting cleared now. The Omicron variant is infecting the general public many times faster than the earlier variants. “We have to be alert, be careful, but we also have to take care that there is no panic situation. We have to see that in this festive season, the alertness of the people and the administration is not lowered anywhere. The way the Central and State governments had adopted a pre-emptive, proactive and collective approach, the same is the mantra of victory this time as well. The more we can limit the corona infection, the less the problem will be,” he added.
Union Ministers Amit Shah, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar were among those present. Officials briefed the meeting about the latest updates on the pandemic situation.
PM Modi also urged the CMs to ramp up the vaccination process among children (15-18 years) and to meet the adequate infrastructures for health facilities. “We need to counter any attempt of spreading rumours against vaccination. Several times, we get to hear that ‘getting infected with Covid despite vaccination, what’s its use’. Even for masks, such rumours are spread that it does not benefit. There is a need to counter such rumours,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also said the maximum treatment of Covid patients must be done in home isolation. “For this, it is important to follow home isolation guideline and protocols and improvise as per the situation,” he said.
“During home isolation, the better the facility of tracking and treatment, the lesser there will be the need to go to hospitals,” the PM said.
PM Modi expressed satisfaction that the Rs 23,000 crore package allocated by the Centre to the States has been utilised well for strengthening their health infrastructure. “Rs 23,000 crores package allocated by the Centre to states has been utilized well with many states strengthening their health infrastructure. Centre and states need to follow this pre-emptive, collective, and proactive approach this time too,” the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister also said that the “Har Ghar Dastak” Covid vaccination campaign needs to be intensified for achieving 100% vaccination.
“It is a matter of pride for every Indian that today India has given the first dose to about 92% of the adult population. The coverage of the second dose has also reached around 70% in the country,” PM Modi said.
“Within 10 days, India has also vaccinated about 3 crore of its adolescents. This shows India’s potential, shows our preparedness to deal with this challenge,” he added.
Chief Ministers from several states, such as Ashok Gehlot from Rajasthan, Himanta Biswa Sarma from Assam, Charanjit Channi from Punjab, V. Narayanasamy from Puducherry, Bhupesh Baghel from Chhattisgarh, and Biplab Deb from Tripura, were present in the virtual meeting. Basavaraj Bommai from Karnataka and Zoramthanga from Mizoram were also present. PM Modi has directed all the ministers for strict active surveillance in the areas and states reporting higher Covid cases. He directed the officials to provide technical support to the states.
At present, India has reported more than 2.47 lakh Covid cases and the daily positivity rates have risen to 13.11%. The country has also reported more than 5000 cases of Omicron, Maharashtra (1367) and Rajasthan (792) have reported the highest number of Omicron cases. Meanwhile, Delhi has reported more than 500 Omicron cases, and Kerala has reported around 480 Omicron cases.
WITH AGENCY INPUTS