PM calls for staggered re-emergence plan post-lockdown

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday suggested that the 21-day lock-down to arrest the spread of COVID-19 could be lifted in a staggered manner asking chief ministers to prepare a common exit strategy for the same.

In his second video-conference with chief ministers of states, the Prime Minister called for the formulation of a common exit strategy to ensure a staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ends.

“It is important to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once lockdown ends,” Modi told the chief ministers asking them to brainstorm and send suggestions for such an exit strategy.

Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Health Minister Harshvardhan and senior officials also attended the meeting.

On March 24, Modi had announced a 21-day nation-wide lock-down to arrest the spread of COVID-19. The lock-down began on the intervening night of Mary 24 and 25 and will be in force till midnight on April 14.

The Prime Minister also stressed that the country cannot afford to lower its guard in the fight against COVID-19 and asked the chief ministers to enforce the lockdown “seriously”.

Modi said the 21-day lockdown had achieved “some success” and asked chief ministers to focus for the next few weeks on testing, tracing, isolating and quarantining suspected COVID-19 patients to arrest the further spread of the disease.

At the same time, he also cautioned them about a possible second wave of the outbreak in some countries and made a strong pitch for building up a united front based on community approach in the battle against the pandemic.

“It is imperative to work on a war footing, identify hotspots of the virus, encircle them and ensure that the virus does not spread out,” Modi said amid reports of the rapid spread of the viral infection, primarily sourced at the congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin here.

“Our first priority for the next few weeks should be testing, tracing, isolating and quarantine. For this all State to district level efforts must be coordinated,” he said.

The Prime Minister said district-level disease surveillance officers should be appointed as soon as possible to make sure that penetration of this strategy is optimum as well as the data collected from private laboratories allowed to test should be collated district-wise to be utilised for further strategies on how to tackle the pandemic.

Several chief ministers spoke about the mobilisation of resources – financial as well as medical – to mitigate the crisis.

Observing that this being harvest season in many parts of the country, the Prime Minister said that while farmers and labourers engaged in harvest operations were exempt from the lockdown, some social distancing norms should be maintained even in the field.

He asked chief ministers to think of other platforms for procuring grains apart from Agriculture Produce Market Committee and explore the possibility of creating pooling platforms for rural areas, similar ride-sharing apps, which can be used for this purpose.