Covid meet. Rising Covid cases: PM to convene meeting with CMs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held a high-level review meeting on Sunday to assess the Covid surge and said he will meet with Chief Ministers to discuss State-specific scenarios. With over 1.5 lakh new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the Prime Minister stressed on the need to ensure continuity of non-Covid health services while managing Covid cases.

Meanwhile, the Capital continued to witness a spike in Covid cases. Though over 22,000 cases with a case positivity of over 23 per cent were reported on Sunday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ruled out a complete lockdown. Mumbai too reported around 20,000 cases. Kerala and Karnataka registered 6,238 and 12,000 cases, respectively, during the last 24 hours. As more States imposed localised restrictions, IndiGo Airlines announced withdrawal of around 20 per cent of its flights.

Modi’s meeting

In his review meeting, Modi assessed the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, status of the vaccination campaign in the country and the emergence of Omicron and its implications for public health.

After a detailed discussion, the PM directed that intensive containment and active surveillance should continue in clusters reporting alarming number of cases and required technical support be provided to States which are reporting a high number of cases. He highlighted the need to ensure effective usage of masks and physical distancing measures as a new normal to control the spread. He further highlighted the need to effectively implement home isolation for mild/asymptomatic cases and disseminate factual information to the community at large.

“A meeting with CMs will be convened to discuss State-specific scenarios, best practices and the public health response,” a statement issued by the PM said. The PM also spoke about the need to leverage telemedicine to ensure availability of health-related guidance to people in remote and rural areas.

Vaccine coverage

Modi stressed on the need to ensure vaccination coverage through precautionary doses for healthcare workers and frontline workers is taken up in mission mode. “The PM also spoke about the importance of continuous scientific research in testing, vaccines and pharmacological interventions, including genome sequencing, given that the virus is evolving continuously,” the statement said. The meeting acknowledged that 31 per cent of adolescents aged 15-18 years have been administered the first dose within 7 days of the rollout of the initiative. The PM noted this achievement and called for further acceleration in mission mode, the statement said.

Ground situation

India reported around 1.60 lakh cases on Sunday, which is over 12 per cent higher than the previous day’s tally. The weekly positivity and daily positivity rate expanded to 6.77 per cent and 10.21 per cent, respectively. The daily death toll was at 327, taking the total to 4.83 lakh deaths. The country conducted over 15 lakh tests during the previous day.

Meanwhile, the National Health Mission said that the feature for online appointments for precaution dose for healthcare workers, frontline workers and citizens over 60 years is now live on CoWIN. According to the Health Ministry, those eligible for the third dose do not need to make fresh registration on the CoWIN app. They can go directly to get their precautionary shot once their appointment is scheduled.

It is noted that the precautionary dose would be the same as the one taken during the primary vaccination.

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