New Delhi, January 13:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers on Thursday over the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation in the country amid a surge in infections due to the Omicron variant, according to people familiar with the matter. He will interact with the chief ministers at 4.30pm via video conferencing, people cited above said.
The meeting is scheduled to take place at a time when India is inching closer to 250,000 daily infections in the new Covid wave largely driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. The rapid surge in Covid-19 cases has prompted the authorities to impose fresh restrictions, including night curfew and ban on large gatherings.
The prime minister chaired a high-level meeting last week to assess the Covid-19 situation in the country, ongoing preparedness of the healthcare system, status of the vaccination campaign, and public health implications of the Omicron variant. During the meeting, the health secretary gave a detailed presentation on the global surge in Covid cases, according to the prime minister’s office.
PM Modi asked officials to coordinate with the states regarding the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level. He directed officials to continue intensive containment and active surveillance in clusters reporting higher cases and provide required technical support be to states which are reporting higher cases.
India has expanded the vaccination drive for adolescents aged 15-18 and has started administering ‘precaution doses’ to healthcare, frontline workers, and senior citizens with comorbidities. PM Modi urged officials to further accelerate the vaccine drive for adolescents in “mission mode.” He said that a meeting with the chief ministers should be convened to discuss state-specific scenarios, best practices and the public health response.
“PM also spoke about the importance for continuous scientific research in testing , vaccines and pharmacological interventions including genome sequencing given that the virus is evolving continuously,” the prime minister’s office said in a release.
On Wednesday, India reported 246,912 new Covid cases, taking the cumulative tally to 36,317,422, according to HT’s Covid-19 dashboard.
