Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a meeting with the Chief Ministers on the current COVID-19 situation in the country. "Many states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Punjab have crossed the peak of the first wave. This is a serious concern. People have become complacent. In most states, the administration has also become relaxed," Modi said.
Modi appealed all the CMs to stress on COVID-19 testing. "Our target is to do 70% RT-PCR tests. Let the number of positive cases come high, but do maximum testing. Proper sample collection is very important, it can be checked through proper governance," he said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray urged the Prime Minister to provide an additional supply of vaccines, oxygen, and ventilators amid massive COVID-19 numbers recorded daily in the state.
Uddhav Thackeray said the rise in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra was mainly due to the Gram Panchayat elections and the wedding ceremonies. "Suddenly an outbreak of the virus started from some parts of Vidarbha and several families became infected. While the state was returning to normal, the infection was exacerbated by mutations in the virus. The same thing was happening in other parts of the world," he said.
Regarding the vaccination drive in the state, Uddhav said that the objective is to vaccinate about 1.77 crore people in the priority group and for this 40 lakh vaccines should be supplied every week. "So far, the state has been given 1,06,23,500 doses by the Centre, of which 92-95 lakh doses have been given to the people. At present, Maharashtra has very few stocks left and some centers have been closed. The Central government has said that 17.43 lakh doses will be given after April 15, but this will hamper the vaccination drive. Therefore, full delivery should be done as per our demand," he said.
Besides, Thackeray also reiterated his demand that everyone under the age of 25 should be vaccinated.
Maharashtra in dire need of oxygen and around 1700-2500 MT of it will be required by the end of April, said Uddhav. Moreover, based on the number of active cases, 90,000 to 1 lakh Remdesivir injections will be needed by the end of April, he added. Uddhav also urged the Centre to provide additional 1200 ventilators.
