Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases being reported from few states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today interacted with the Chief Ministers of various states regarding the Covid situation. Addressing the Chief Ministers via video conference, the Prime Minister said that “more than 96% of the cases in India have recovered and India is having one of the lowest fatality rates in the world.”
He expressed concern about the high test positivity rate in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. “70 districts of the country witnessed a 150 per cent rise in the last few weeks. He urged to stop this emerging “second peak” of Corona immediately and warned that if we do not stop this growing pandemic now, then a country-wide outbreak can occur,” PM Modi said.
We need to stop the ‘second peak’ of Corona: PM Modi
For stopping this emerging “second peak” of Corona, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of solving the problems of local governance. He warned that “the confidence which came from our achievements in the battle against Corona should not turn into negligence. He further stressed that the public should not be brought to panic mode and at the same time also get rid of trouble. He stressed the need to strategize by incorporating our past experiences, in our efforts.”
PM stresses on Test, track and treat
He also stressed the need to be serious about ‘Test, Track and Treat’. “It is very important to track every infected person’s contacts in the shortest time and keep the RT-PCR test rate above 70 per cent,” the Prime Minister said. He insisted on more RT-PCR tests in states which give more emphasis to Rapid antigen tests like Kerala, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and UP.
The Prime Minister urged to increase testing and to pay special attention to the “referral system” and “ambulance network” in small cities. He stressed the need for a new mechanism for sharing information among themselves. Similarly, the responsibility of following the SOP for surveillance of the contacts of the travellers coming from abroad has also increased.
The Prime Minister remarked that we need to identify mutants of coronavirus and assess their effects.
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PM calls for avoiding vaccine doses wastage
He lauded the continually increased pace of vaccination in the country and the vaccination rates crossing more than 3 million vaccinations in a single day. But at the same time, he warned to take the problem of vaccine doses wastage very seriously. He noted that the vaccine waste in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to the tune of 10 per cent. He urged to immediately correct the drawbacks of planning and governance at the local level to reduce vaccine waste.
The Prime Minister summed up that along with the above steps the basic steps to prevent the spread of this infection are wearing masks, maintaining physical distance, taking care of cleanliness etc. He urged that there should be no laxity in such steps and people’s awareness will have to be raised on these subjects. He called for increasing the number of vaccination centres and asked to stay vigilant about the vaccine expiry date. ‘Dawai bhi aur kadai bhi’ insisted the Prime Minister.
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