Owing to a massive rise in the COVID-19 cases in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a meeting with top central government officials to discuss the deadly second wave and the national vaccination drive.
Discussing over the situation of the massive pandemic situation in the countrt, PM Modi said that all necessary measures must be taken to ramp up the availability of hospital beds for Covid patients. During the meeting, various aspects relating to medicines, oxygen, ventilators and vaccination were discussed.
Besides, the PM also directed that additional supply of beds through temporary hospitals and isolation centers should be ensured.
He also spoke about the need to utilize the full potential of India’s pharmaceutical industry to meet the rising demand of various medicines.
On Friday (April 16) the PM met senior officials of several ministries and was briefed on the government's efforts to meet rising demand for medical oxygen to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients. Last week he had chaired a video conference meeting with the chief ministers of some of the worst-affected states.
The meeting is to be held as India since the last few days has been reporting cases on large numbers. Today India recorded highest sinle day spike with 2.34 lakh cases.
Several states, including Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, have red-flagged low oxygen reserves.
As of Saturday morning, India's total active case load has crossed 16.79 lakh. Maharashtra continues to lead the charts, with more than 6.39 lakh active cases, while Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh are a distant second and third. These are the only states with more than one lakh active cases at present. Over the last few weeks, several states have enforced partial lockdowns and additional restrictions.
At the same time, India continues to ramp up its inoculation drive. As of Saturday morning, a total of 11,99,37,641 vaccines have been administered.
