New Delhi, July 13: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed concern on the rising number of cases in 90 districts, including several in the northeast, saying containment of the third Covid wave should be the top concern for everyone.
Interacting with the chief ministers of Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam on the Covid situation, the PM said the northeast is key to India's ‘vaccination for all' goal.
The Chief Ministers briefed the PM about the progress of vaccination in their states and steps that are being taken to take vaccines to far-flung areas. They also discussed the issue of vaccine hesitancy and measures being taken to overcome it.
They gave an account of improvement in medical infrastructure to better tackle Covid cases and the support lent through the PM CARES Fund and assured taking timely action to bring down the positivity rate as well as the number of cases in their states.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah talked about the reduction in the overall daily number of cases in India but forewarned that this should not lead to one becoming lax and letting one's guard down.
“Some areas of the country are witnessing high positivity rates. There is need for testing, tracing, tracking and vaccination,” said Shah.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan gave an overview of the Covid cases in the country and discussed the high positivity rate in some northeast states.
He briefed about the steps being taken to boost supply of medical oxygen and also gave an overview of the progress of vaccination.
Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister lauded the people, health workers and the governments of northeast for their hard work in the fight against the pandemic and creating infrastructure for testing, treatment and vaccination despite the difficult terrain of the states.
The Prime Minister expressed worry over the growing number of cases in some districts and stressed the need to catch these signals and take strict actions at the micro level. He re-emphasised the use of micro-containment protocol in dealing with the situation. The government has been advising states to enforce restrictions in districts with over 10 per cent positivity rate.
Noting the fast mutating nature of the virus, the Prime Minister advised strict monitoring of the mutation and to keep track of all variants.
He said while experts are studying the mutations and their impact, prevention and treatment are critical through Covid-appropriate behaviour.
Acknowledging the impact of pandemic on tourism and business, the Prime Minister strongly cautioned against crowding at hill stations without observing proper precautions.
He rejected the argument that people wanted to enjoy before the arrival of the third wave saying this needed to be understood that the third wave would not come on its own.
“The main concern should be how to prevent the third wave. Experts are repeatedly warning against carelessness and crowding as they can lead to massive surge in cases. Crowding must be prevented,” said the PM.
He stressed the need to keep accelerating the vaccination process and asked states to enlist the help of social, educational institutes, celebrities and also faith organisations to address hesitancy issues.
Referring to the recent Cabinet approval of the Rs 23,000 crore package for improving the infrastructure for testing and treatment, the Prime Minister said the package would help in strengthening the health infrastructure of the northeast. This package will expedite testing, diagnostics, genome sequencing in northeast.
The Prime Minister stressed the need for quickly increasing the number of beds, oxygen facilities and paediatric care infrastructure in the northeast. The Prime Minister said hundreds of oxygen plants are being established in the country through PM-CARES and the northeast too had got about 150 plants. The Prime Minister requested the Chief Ministers to complete the process of establishing these plants quickly.
The Prime Minister underlined the need to establish temporary hospitals due to the geographical situation of the northeast.
He also asked to prepare trained manpower as oxygen plants, ICU wards, new machines that are reaching block level hospitals will need this manpower.
The PM will interact with CMs of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra and Kerala virtually on July 16.
