Modi chairs meeting to review Covid crisis
PM calls for focus on surveillance in rural areas; asks states to report infection figures, death tallies with transparency
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for an increase in Covid-19 testing and asked states to report their infection figures accurately and transparently as he chaired a meeting on the pandemic situation in the country.
He directed officials to come up with a distribution plan for ensuring oxygen and power supply to rural areas as the cases have surged in villages as well unlike the first wave of the pandemic last year when rural India was not badly hit.
“The Prime Minister instructed that testing needs to be scaled up further, with use of both RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen Tests, especially in areas with high test positivity rates,” a statement issued after the meeting
said.
“Discussed a number of issues during today’s review meeting on COVID-19, including scaling up testing in areas with high TPR, preparing localised containment strategies, augmenting health capacities in rural areas and ramping up the speed of vaccination,” PM Modi tweeted after the meeting.
Officials briefed Modi at the meeting and told him the testing has gone up rapidly in the country, from around five million per week in early March to over 10 million now. They also informed him about the gradual decrease in test positivity and increase in recovery rate. The cases that had gone over 400,000 daily are now coming down, Modi was told.
Modi said states should be encouraged to report their Covid-19 numbers transparently “without any pressure of high numbers showing adversely on their efforts”, remarks that come amid reports that many states have been under-reporting their case and fatality tallies.
Modi also called for augmenting healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on door-to-door testing and surveillance. “He also spoke about empowering ASHA [Accredited Social Health Activist] & Anganwadi workers with all necessary tools. PM [Prime Minister] asked for guidelines to be made available in easy language along with illustrations for home isolation and treatment in rural areas,” the statement said.
On Friday, Modi warned about the spread of Covid-19 in rural areas and urged the village panchayats to ensure proper awareness and sanitation.
“India’s fight against Covid has been guided throughout by scientists and subject experts and will continue being guided by them,” he said. He called localised containment strategies the need of the hour, especially in states with high positivity rates.
The statement said Modi took serious note of the news reports
about unutilised ventilators in storage units and directed an immediate audit of their installation and operations. Modi instructed officials to conduct training for the proper use of medical devices such as ventilators and oxygen concentrators.
The ministry of health and family welfare on Thursday had said that media reports claiming ventilators supplied by the central government to Faridkot’s Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMC) and Hospital, are lying unused due to technical glitches are seen to be unfounded and not having the full information on the matter.
Officials gave him a detailed presentation on the state and district level situation of oxygen availability, testing, healthcare infrastructure, and vaccination roadmap. In a tweet, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi separately kept up his attack on the government over its Covid-19 strategy and said its “disastrous vaccine strategy” will ensure a devastating third wave. “It can’t be repeated enough- India needs a proper vaccine strategy!”