PM Modi to discuss COVID19 challenges with chief ministers
INDIA - Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with all chief ministers on Wednesday to discuss India’s status in the battle against coronavirus disease and the way ahead, according to news agency ANI.
PM Modi’s decision to hold the meeting via video conference comes at a time the central government is trying to contain the Nizamuddin setback to its efforts to restrict the spread of the highly contagious Sars-Cov-2 pathogen that has, according to the World Health Organisation, killed over 36,000 people across the world. At a status-check meeting with chief secretaries earlier on Wednesday, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba had also told states to scrupulously trace every Tablighi Jamaat and then their contacts to stop the disease from spreading any faster than it already is.
According to the health ministry, there were 1,600 confirmed COVID19 cases that had led to the death of 38 people in India. Gauba told chief secretaries that they should carry out intensive contact tracing of the Tablighi Jamaat participants “as this has increased the risk of containment efforts of COVID19,” a government statement said. Gauba said this exercise should be carried out “on a war footing”. According to the World Health Organisation database, the disease is in the local transmission stage in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ordered a 21-day national lockdown on March 24 in his televised address to the nation to stop the disease from spreading. Cabinet Secretary Gauba noted that the lockdown was now being implemented effectively all over the country, a reference to the flagrant violations in Delhi last week when tens of thousands of migrants reached the national capital’s borders with Uttar Pradesh. (Hindustani Times)