New Delhi: The Union government has called an all-party meeting to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic situation December 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to interact with floor leaders of various parties from both Houses of Parliament, official sources said Monday. The Parliamentary Affairs Ministry is coordinating the meeting and has extended invitation to all parties, they said. The meeting will be held virtually Friday from 10.30am onwards, sources said.
This will be the second all-party meeting called by the government to discuss the COVID-19 situation since the outbreak of the pandemic. The first meeting was held on April 20 amid a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.
The top brass of the government including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Home Minister Amit Shah besides Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi will also attend the meeting, they said.
The government is likely to brief the parliamentarians about various steps it has taken to deal with the pandemic. It may also touch upon the advances being made in vaccine development and distribution.
The floor leaders of different parties include Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’ Brien of the Trinamool Congress, Midhun Reddy and Vijayasai Reddy of the YSR Congress among others.
Modi has held multiple meetings with chief ministers, laying special emphasis on states with high COVID-19 caseload, to review the situation there and offer suggestions.
Earlier Monday, the prime minister held a virtual meeting with three teams working on developing and manufacturing COVID-19 vaccine. He had also visited Saturday pharmaceutical companies in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune, to review coronavirus vaccine development work there.
During the meeting Modi urged the teams involved in vaccine making to take extra efforts to inform people in simple language about the vaccine and related matters such as its efficacy.
These teams were from Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, Pune; Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad; and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Hyderabad.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that Modi also asked the companies, represented by these teams, to come out with their suggestions and ideas regarding regulatory processes and related matters.
“The PM advised all the departments concerned to engage with the manufacturers and seek to resolve matters so that the efforts by these companies bear fruit in order to serve the needs of the country and the entire world,” the statement said.
The potential of various platforms for vaccine development was discussed. Also matters relating to logistics, transport, cold chain etc and the delivering the vaccines were also discussed, the statement added.
All the vaccine candidates discussed are at different stages of trials and detailed data and results are expected early next year onwards.
