New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired a meeting with Chief Ministers and other dignitaries of seven states most affected by Covid, including Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to review COVID preparedness and response in these states.
The meeting was attended by Home Minister, Defence Minister, Health Minister, Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh along with respective Home Ministers, Health Ministers, Chief Secretaries, Health Secretaries, Home Secretaries and DGPs.
Officials of PMO, Cabinet Secretary, Member NITI Aayog and Secretaries of Health, Home, ICMR and other officials also attended the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, the Prime Minister said that it is important to identify high burden districts and deepening the COVID appropriate behaviour by undertaking various media campaigns.
He suggested that for sustainable COVID management, awareness of the community and its involvement is paramount and there is a need to continue Jan Bhagidari and Jan Andolan for COVID management.
He highlighted the need to promote COVID appropriate festivities in the coming days. He highlighted the need to focus on strict enforcement and surveillance in containment zones, undertaking contact tracing and monitoring comorbid and elderly patients specifically so as to ensure that the infection spread can be halted.
He highlighted the need to ensure adequate supply of oxygen, medicines and equipment besides effective implementation of standard treatment guidelines across all health facilities to decrease case mortality.
He mentioned that while it is important to upgrade the health infrastructure, it is equally important to ensure that citizens are made aware of the same including ensuring seamless hospital admission processes at the field level.
He mentioned that the battle for COVID management is still far from over and all states need to continue their on-going endeavour and have a mission-mode approach for managing the Pandemic situation in the country.
A detailed presentation on the COVID status on India was made by Secretary (H).
It was highlighted that these seven States are contributing to 62 per cent of active cases in the country and approximately 77 per cent of the deaths due to COVID. The presentation highlighted the district of concern in terms of case trajectory, testing conducted, fatality & sample positivity rate in these states.
The Chief Ministers also briefed the PM about the status in their states, and various initiatives being undertaken to control the situation.
The Prime Minister requested all concerned to maintain strict follow up to ensure that the chain of transmission of virus can be suppressed in these states, besides taking adequate testing to assist in early identification of cases, focusing on fatality reduction and promoting COVID safe behaviour to prevent further spread of infection in the community.
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