Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting to review the COVID-19 situation and vaccination program in the country. He mentioned that 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.
PM Modi highlighted the need to enforce COVID appropriate behaviour in the coming days and ensure the availability of beds, testing facilities and timely hospitalization, etc. He directed to avoid mortality under all circumstances by ramping up healthcare infrastructure, availability of oxygen, ventilators besides required logistics, and ensuring that clinical management protocols are followed across all hospitals as well as for those in home quarantine.
Further, he also directed that central teams consisting of public health specialists and clinicians be sent to Maharashtra in view of high case load and deaths, and likewise to Punjab and Chhattisgarh because of the disproportionate number of deaths being reported there.
PM Modi especially highlighted the need to ensure effective implementation of containment measures, besides the involvement of community volunteers in active case search and management of containment zones. He urged that all states need to take required stringent measures with comprehensive restrictions in places witnessing high surge to curb the spread.
Meanwhile, eight states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat account for 80.96 per cent of the 93,249 new daily COVID-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry said on Sunday morning.
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Punjab cumulatively account for 76.41 per cent of the total active cases in the country, the ministry said.
Maharashtra alone accounts for more than half (58.19%) of the total active caseload of the country. India saw 93,249 new coronavirus infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, the highest single-day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally of cases to 1,24,85,509, according to the ministry data updated on Sunday morning.
