PM Modi talks to 4 CMs, 2 LGs on Covid-19 situation

Modi reviewed the progress of vaccination and the roadmap for scaling up production of vaccines in the next few months

Hours after getting a briefing about 12 states with more than 1 lakh active cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Chief Ministers and LGs of over half a dozen states over the prevailing Covid-19 situation and the remedial measures being taken there.

The late evening telephonic call was made by the Prime Minister individually to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Jharkhand, and LGs of Puducherry and Jammu & Kashmir about the Covid-19-related situation in their states and UT, sources in the government said.

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Modi had in an earlier meeting in the day undertaken a comprehensive review of the Covid-19-related situation in the country and discussed measures including the need to identify districts of concern where case positivity is 10 per cent or more and bed occupancy is more than 60 per cent on either oxygen supported or ICU beds.

Modi personally spoke to the CMs and LGs after having reviewed the state-wise and district-wise Covid-19-situation and giving directions for help and guidance to the states about leading indicators to ramp up healthcare infrastructure.

While Andhra Pradesh is among the ten states/UTs accounting for over 70 per cent of new daily cases reported in the country, Jharkhand is among the ten states/UTs that collectively account for over 75 per cent of deaths reported in a day.

Modi telephoned Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy as the state reported more than 20,000 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours again. Karnataka and Kerala are already contributing in large to the southern surge in Covid-19 cases.

Odisha, on the other hand, saw its Covid-19 tally crossing the five-lakh mark on Thursday with 10,521 fresh cases -- the highest so far in a single day -- pushing the tally to 5,00,162, while 17 fresh fatalities raised the toll to 2,121.

Jharkhand reported 141 new Covid-19 fatalities taking the death toll to 3,346, while 5,770 new positive cases pushed the state's tally to 2,63,115.

Telangana reported 6,026 fresh Covid-19 cases taking the tally to over 4.75 lakh while the death toll stood at 2,579 with 52 more casualties.

Puducherry logged 1,510 fresh coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 66,627.