Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Chief Ministers of all states and UTs virtually on Thursday to discuss the ongoing Covid-19 situation and vaccination strategy in the country. The meeting comes in the midst of steep rise in fresh infections. The meeting will take place at around 6:30 PM.
PM Modi’s last interaction with the Chief Ministers was on March 17. He had expressed concern over the rise in Covid-19 cases in parts of the country and called for quick and decisive steps to check the emerging second peak.
Ahead of PM Modi's interaction with CMs, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a review meeting on Tuesday with Health ministers of 11 states and Union Territories which have been witnessing a surge in coronavirus cases. These 11 states are Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan.
Amid the "alarming rate of growth" in infections and deaths, PM Modi had on Sunday reviewed the COVID-19 situation and vaccination exercise in at a high-level meeting with senior officials.
India on Wednesday recorded as many as 1,15,736 new COVID-19 cases, the highest number of daily cases ever since the pandemic began, according to the Union Health Ministry. Of these, nearly 55,000 cases were detected in Maharashtra, while Chhattisgarh scaled a new peak of 9,921 cases. As many as 630 deaths were reported across the country over the past 24 hours, taking the total coronavirus death count in India to 1,66,177.
According to an official statement that was released after the meeting, PM Modi had said the five-fold strategy of "testing, tracing, treatment, COVID-appropriate behaviour and vaccination," if implemented with utmost seriousness and commitment, would be effective in curbing the spread of the pandemic.
The statement also mentioned that the reasons for sharp rise in cases could be mainly attributed to the severe decline in compliance of COVID-appropriate behaviour, especially in the use of face masks and maintaining social distancing, pandemic fatigue and lack of effective implementation of containment measures at the field level.
A special campaign for COVID-appropriate behaviour with emphasis on 100 percent mask usage, personal hygiene and sanitation at public places, workplaces and health facilities will be organised between April 6-14, the statement had added.
The Prime Minister in the meeting had also highlighted the need to enforce COVID-appropriate behaviour in the coming days. He ensured the availability of beds, testing facilities and timely hospitalisation.
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