Ahead of his interactions with Chief Ministers on June 16 and June 17 to draw a new strategy to check COVID-19 spread in major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore and Jaipur Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a comprehensive meeting with senior ministers and officials in which he reviewed the national level status and preparation in the context of the pandemic
In the meeting, Member NITI Vinod Paul, who is convenor of the Empowered Group of Medical Emergency Management Plan, made a detailed presentation on the current status and the likely scenario of COVID-19 cases in the medium term.
Taking a view of the wide range of recommendations of the Empowered Group on city and district-wise requirements of hospital beds and isolation beds which will be required, the Prime Minister instructed Health Ministry officials to undertake emergency planning in consultation with the states and UTs.
With death cases also registering a spike, concern rang loud and clear in the government circles amid a clear view that out of box measures would be required to contain the spread in states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal which have a high load.
It was observed that out of the total cases two-thirds are in five states with an overwhelming proportion of cases in big cities.
In view of the challenges being faced, particularly by the large cities, the meeting dwelt on the need to augment testing as well as increase the number of beds and services to effectively handle the peak surge of daily cases.
The present and emerging scenario of the COVID 19 disease in Delhi was discussed and the projections for next 2 months were deliberated upon.
The Prime Minister’s meeting on Saturday was attended by Shah, Health Minister Harshvardhan, Principal Secretary to PM, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Health Secretary Priti Sudan, DG ICMR Balram Bhargava, and the convenors of the related Empowered Groups.
Modi’s review of India’s response to COVID-19 pandemic and took stock of situation in different states and union territories including Delhi came a day before Home Minister Amit Shah will be holding two meetings on Delhi on Sunday—with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi L-G Anil Baijal, medicos and experts as well as a separate one in which Mayors have also been called. In the Saturday meeting, Modi underlined the need for convening such an “emergency meeting” to plan a coordinated and comprehensive response to handle the challenge posed by rising cases of COVID-19.
During the meet, it was observed that two-thirds of India's COVID-19 infection load are in five states with an overwhelming proportion of cases in big cities, the statement said.
Ten days after recording two lakh COVID-19 cases, India surpassed the three lakh-mark on Saturday with the worst daily spike of 11,458 infections, while the death toll too climbed to 8,884 with 386 new fatalities, the Union Health Ministry said. In Delhi, the number of infections stood at 36,824.
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