As the country continues to battle with the harrowing second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke with Chief Ministers of Punjab, Karnataka, Bihar, and Uttarakhand over the situation, sources said.
Prime Minister Modi, over the past few days, has been holding telephonic conversations with Chief Ministers of various states, including Uddhav Thackeray of Maharashtra, M.K. Stalin of Tamil Nadu, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh.
Earlier, Madhya Pradesh CM had informed that he had apprised PM Modi of the current Covid situation in the state. He also highlighted the status of oxygen, oxygen plants, Remdesivir injections, isolation centres, Covid care centres, temporary Covid hospitals, and public awareness campaigns.
The Prime Minister in conversation with Maharashtra CM had enquired about the Covid-related situation and praised the state for its efforts in combating the virus.
Earlier, PM Modi has also spoken with Manipur, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh CMs on the issue. He also spoke to Lieutenant Governors of Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir to get a detailed picture of the outbreak across the country.
Soon after a conversation with PM Modi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, however, claimed that the PM only did his “Mann ki Baat” instead of “listening to and spoken on important matters”. In the meantime, India recorded more the four-lakh fresh Covid-19 cases for the fourth day in a row. At least 4,03,738 new Covid infections were reported in the country taking the cumulative toll to 2,22,96,414. In the last 24 hours, India registered 3,86,44 recoveries and 4,092 related deaths.
Karnataka reported 47,563 fresh Covid-19 cases and 482 deaths on Saturday, of which 21,534 cases and 285 deaths were from Bengaluru. Having conducted 1.6 lakh tests on Saturday, the daily positivity rate was 30.2 %. With 482 deaths, the daily fatality rate was 1%.
The numbers of fresh cases recorded on Saturday were 9100, 8517, 11,259 in Punjab, Bihar, and Uttrakhand respectively, and the number of fatalities of the respective states stood at 171, 151, and 76.