Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a high-level meeting with Chief Ministers of all States and UTs via video conferencing, to review the status and preparedness of COVID-19 response and management, with special emphasis on eight high focus States. These States were Haryana, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and West Bengal. The modalities of Covid-19 vaccine delivery, distribution and administration were also discussed during the meeting.
Ramping up health infrastructure
The Prime Minister remarked that the country has faced the pandemic through concerted efforts and in terms of both recovery rate and fatality rate, the situation in India is better than most other countries. He talked about the expansion of the testing and treatment network and noted that special emphasis of the PM CARES fund has been to make available oxygen. He said that efforts are on to make medical colleges and district hospitals self-sufficient in terms of oxygen generation, and informed that the process for establishing more than 160 new oxygen plants is underway.
Four stages of people’s response
Stating that it is important to understand how the people have reacted to the pandemic, the Prime Minister noted that it can be broken down to four stages. The first was of fear, when people reacted in panic. The second stage saw cropping up of doubts about the virus, when several people tried to hide that they had been afflicted by it. The third stage was of acceptance, when people became more serious about the virus and displayed greater alertness. In the fourth stage, with increasing recovery rate, people have developed a false notion of security from the virus, thus leading to rise in instances of negligence. PM Modi emphasized that it is of utmost importance to increase awareness about the seriousness of the virus in this fourth stage. He noted that the trend of increase in spread of the pandemic in countries where its impact was earlier lessening, is being seen in some States as well, which necessitates greater alacrity and caution by the administration.
Modi noted that it is important to increase RT-PCR tests, ensure better monitoring of patients esp those in home isolation, better equip health centres at village and community level and keep running awareness campaigns for safety from the virus. He said that our target should be to bring down Fatality Rate below 1%.
Ensuring Smooth, Systematic and Sustained Vaccination
PM Modi reassured that the government is keeping a close watch on the development of vaccines and is in contact with Indian developers and manufacturers, along with global regulators, governments of other countries, multilateral institutions and international companies. He added that it will be ensured that the vaccine for citizens will meet all necessary scientific criteria. He underlined that just like the focus in the fight against COVID has been on saving each and every life, the priority will be to ensure that the vaccine reaches everyone. Governments at all levels will have to work together to ensure that the vaccination drive is smooth, systematic and sustained.
He noted that the priority of vaccination is being decided in consultation with the States. The requirements of additional cold chain storages has also been discussed with the States. He asked the Chief Ministers to ensure regular monitoring of State Level Steering Committee and State & District Level Task Force to ensure better results.
