PM pitches NCR model for 10 hardest hit states

COVID CRISIS Following strategy will help track, contain and mitigate outbreak, says Modi

NEWDELHI:PRIME Minister Narendra Modi cited on Tuesday the Covid-19 response in the National Capital Region (NCR), including Delhi, to urge the chief ministers of the 10 hardest-hit states to focus on three particular areas that he said would help track, contain and mitigate the outbreak – strategies that he said are crucial to defeat the virus across the country.

The meeting was attended by chief ministers of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu – some of the most populous states of the country – and four others that together account for 80% of the active Covid cases and 82% of fatalities due to the viral disease.

“If we defeat the coronavirus in these states, India will win the battle against the virus,” Modi said, according to a transcript of his remarks at the meeting, where he also praised the efforts by authorities and health workers across the country.

According to health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the PM said the states must focus on containment and surveillance, tracking and testing of close contacts of any infected person within 72 hours, and ramping up testing further to bring down the test positivity rate.

“We have seen that increasing testing helps us identify and contain the spread... And once we increase testing even further, we will see that the goal of bringing the fatality rate below 1% will be achievable,” Modi said, according to the government release, after noting that daily tests have now risen above the 700,000 level.

Bhushan, who held a press briefing separately, said the PM particularly urged Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana to ramp up testing. Bihar, at 9,180 tests per mil

lion, has the lowest testing rate in the country, HT’S dashboard of Covid-19 statistics showed.

The per million testing in Gujarat was 14,973, UP 14,266, West Bengal 11,683 and Telangana 16,788 -- all under the national average of 18,968 tests per million.

“The health ministry believes that even if a state is carrying out tests above the recommended per million population threshold but the positivity rate is high, they must increase tests even further to bring the proportion down to under 5% or 10%,” Bhushan said.

As on Tuesday, India has at least 2.32 million confirmed coronavirus infections, the third highest number of cases after the United States and Brazil.

On an average over the past week, there have been at least 58,000 cases every day in India -the highest in the world.