Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday cautioned against any complacency in the fight against Covid-19, saying that over the past few days there have been pictures and videos of crowded places and people roaming about without masks or social distancing and “it should instill a sense of fear in us”, sources said.
The Prime Minister said that it was not a “pleasant sight” to see people not following Covid-19 protocols. PM Modi chaired the first meeting of his expanded Council of Ministers on Thursday.
He emphasised that there should be no space for carelessness or complacency in such a time and noted that “a single mistake” would have far-reaching impacts and weaken the fight to overcome Covid-19.
The Prime Minister stressed that powered by the country’s Covid warriors and frontline workers, India’s fight against the global pandemic is being fought with full vigour. He said the country is steadily vaccinating a substantial number of its population and testing is also consistently high.
According to sources, the Prime Minister said that with the number of cases being lesser than what they were in the recent months, people may want to venture out. He said everyone must remember that the threat of Covid-19 is far from over, many other nations are seeing surges in infections and the virus is also mutating.
“As ministers, our aim should not be to instil fear but to request people to keep taking all possible precautions so that we are able to move beyond this pandemic in the times to come,” the Prime Minister said, according to sources.
PM Modi also expressed concern at the persistently high number of cases coming from Maharashtra and Kerala, the sources added.
India reported 45,892 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Health Ministry on Thursday. After witnessing a steady decline till Tuesday, COVID-19 infections are witnessing an upward trend. India reported 43,733 new cases on Wednesday, which is 5 per cent less than today. India’s active caseload of COVID-19 cases is at 460,704. The active cases constitute 1.5 per cent of the total cases.
The country also reported 817 deaths due to Covid-19 and with that the cumulative fatalities in the country due to viral infection reached 4,05,028. Out of the people infected since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,98,43,825 patients have already recovered from Covid-19 and 44,291 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours. This constitutes an overall recovery rate of 97.18 per cent, which is showing a sustained increasing trend.
Meanwhile, a new emergency response package worth Rs 23,123 crore to tackle the pandemic was announced by the Central government on Thursday, following the first meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s revamped Cabinet on Thursday.
The announcement outlined the priority for PM Modi who appointed new ministers for health, IT and oil as part of a reshuffle a day ago in a bid to reinvigorate his government amid fierce criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and other quarters.
The package will help set up paediatrics departments in 736 districts, 20,000 new ICU beds and acquire buffer stocks of medicines, new Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
Out of the Rs 23,000 crore, around Rs 15,000 crore will be spent by the Centre and Rs 8,000 crore will be allocated to states, he said, adding the plans will be implemented in the next nine months.
The scheme aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with the focus on health infrastructure development including for paediatric care and with measurable outcomes, read a release by the Cabinet. The Phase-II of the Package has Central Sector (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) components.
Under the Central Sector components, the release said, support would be provided to Central Hospitals, AIIMS, and other institutions of national importance under DoHFW (at VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, LHMC & SSKH, Delhi, RML, Delhi, RIMS, Imphal and NEIGRIMS, Shillong, PGIMER, Chandigarh, JIPMER, Puducherry and AIIMS Delhi (existing AIIMSs) and new AIIMSs under PMSSY) for repurposing 6,688 beds for Covid-19 management.
Besides this, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) would be strengthened by providing Genome Sequencing machines, besides sanctioning scientific control room, Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) and INSACOG Secretariat support.