PM to convene meeting of CMs to discuss pandemic situation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for convening a meeting with chief ministers to discuss state-specific scenarios, best-practices and the public health response to the pandemic.

The PM on Sunday reviewed the Covid-19 pandemic situation in the country with particular focus on the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, status of the vaccination campaign in the country in the wake of rise in Covid cases fuelled by the Omicron variant. Intensive containment and active surveillance should continue in clusters reporting higher cases and required technical support be provided to states which are reporting higher cases presently, he said.

The PM called for continuous scientific research in testing , vaccines and pharmacological interventions including genome sequencing given that the virus is evolving continuously. He urged for accelerating the vaccine drive for adolescents and ensuring vaccination coverage through precaution dose for healthcare workers and front line workers.

The union health secretary highlighted various states and districts of concern, based on the surge in cases and high positivity being reported and the support given to the states to manage the upcoming challenge were highlighted. Various predictive scenarios of peak cases were also presented to the PM.

Around 31% adolescents aged 15-18 years having been administered with the first dose in seven days. India’s total vaccination coverage has reached 151.93 crore doses. The country on Sunday reported 1,59,632 new cases taking the active caseload to 5,90,611. The daily positivity rate has gone up to 10.21%.