New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned Tuesday states and Union Territories against any laxity in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Narendra Modi called for reducing the positivity and fatality rates by focusing on curbing the virus transmission. The prime minister was interacting with chief ministers in a virtual meet. He also called for more RT-PCR tests, even as he underlined that India’s COVID-19 situation is more stable than other countries in terms of recovery and fatality rates.
Modi asked the chief ministers to work towards bringing down the positive rate to around five per cent and the fatality rate to below one per cent.
“We need to speed up our efforts to reduce transmission of the virus. Testing, confirmation, contact tracing and data must be given top priority,” Modi said. He added that the government is keeping a close watch on the development of vaccines. It is in contact with Indian developers and manufacturers, along with global regulators, governments of other countries, multilateral institutions and international companies. Modi asserted that that it will be ensured that the vaccine for citizens will meet all necessary scientific criteria. Modi underlined the priority will be to ensure that the vaccine reaches everyone.
The meeting was also attended by Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. The chief ministers who participated in the virtual interaction included Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal, Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot, West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray, Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel and Gujarat’s Vijay Rupani.
A massive network of testing to treatment is running well in India and it is being regularly widened, the prime minister said.
Modi has held several rounds of virtual meetings with states over the coronavirus situation so far. The latest high-level meeting to review the status and preparedness of COVID-19 response and management had a special emphasis on eight high focus states — Haryana, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal.
The modalities of COVID-19 vaccine delivery, distribution and administration were also discussed during the meeting.
India saw 37,975 new coronavirus infections Tuesday taking the COVID-19 caseload to 91.77 lakh. The recoveries crossed 86 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated Tuesday.
Modi said a special emphasis of the PM CARES fund has been to make available oxygen, while efforts are on to make medical colleges and district hospitals self-sufficient in terms of oxygen generation. He also informed the chief ministers that the process for establishing more than 160 new oxygen plants is underway.
The prime minister said there have been broadly four stages in terms of how the people have reacted to the pandemic.
The first was of fear, when people reacted in panic, while the second stage saw cropping up of doubts about the virus, when several people tried to hide that they had been afflicted by it. The third stage was of acceptance, when people became more serious about the virus and displayed greater alertness. In the fourth stage, with increasing recovery rate, people have developed a false notion of security from the virus, thus leading to rise in instances of negligence, Modi said. He emphasised that it is of utmost importance to increase awareness about the seriousness of the virus in this fourth stage.
Modi noted that the trend of increase in the spread of the pandemic in countries where its impact was earlier lessening, is being seen in some states as well, which necessitates greater alacrity and caution by the administration.