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New Delhi’22-12-22
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today chaired a high-level meeting to assess the Covid-19 situation, the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, and the status of the vaccination campaign in the country. He also reviewed the emergence of new Covid-19 variants and their public health implications. This high-level review meeting comes in the backdrop of a spike in COVID19 cases in some countries.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister cautioned against complacency and advised strict vigil. Reiterating that Covid is not over yet, Mr Modi directed officials to strengthen the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at International airports.
Prime Minister Modi also emphasized ensuring that the entire Covid infrastructure at all levels is maintained at a high level of preparedness in terms of equipment, processes, and human resources. He advised States to audit Covid specific facilities to ensure operational readiness of Hospital Infrastructure, including Oxygen Cylinders, PSA plants, ventilators, and human resources.
Mr Modi directed officials to ramp up testing and also genomic sequencing efforts and states have been asked to share a larger number of samples with the designated Genome Sequencing Laboratories for Genome Sequencing on a daily basis. This will support the timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country and facilitate undertaking requisite public health measures.
In view of the upcoming festive season, the Prime Minister has urged everyone to follow Covid appropriate behaviour, including wearing masks in crowded public places. He also urged that precautionary doses must be encouraged especially for vulnerable and elderly groups.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi was informed that there is adequate availability with regard to medicines, vaccines, and hospital beds. He advised regularly monitoring the availability and prices of essential medicines.
During the meeting, a comprehensive presentation was also made regarding the global Covid-19 situation including the rising cases in countries. The Prime Minister was briefed that India has been witnessing a steady decline in cases with average daily cases falling to 153 and weekly positivity down to 0.14 percent in the week ending today. However, 5.9 lakh daily average cases have been reported globally in the last 6 weeks.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar and Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Singh Thakur were among those attending the meeting.
