PM Modi sets up 11 empowered groups to handle COVID-19 response

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday constituted 10 empowered groups and a strategic task force comprising senior bureaucrats for quick planning and implementation of strategies to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak.

“These groups have been empowered to formulate plans and to take all necessary steps for their time bound implementation,” official sources said.

Each of the 11 responses will include a senior representative from the Prime Minister’s Office and cabinet secretariat.

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The groups will hold regular consultations, provide suggestions to the government and monitor their areas tasked to them on a daily basis.

The groups have been empowered to take decisions to the tasks handed over to them such as medical emergency management, availability of hospitals, setting up of isolation and quarantine facilities, ensure supply of masks, Personal Protection Equipment, gloves, ventilators.

The six-member strategic task force look into issues related to the lockdown announced by the Prime Minister last week.