Our Reporter
Dimapur, July 13 (EMN): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expressed concern over the growing number of cases in some districts in the Northeast during an interaction with the chief ministers of the region and stressed on the need to catch these signals and take strict actions at the micro level.
The review meeting was attended by the chief ministers of Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam, according to PIB update.
While lauding the people, health workers and the governments of the region for their hard work in the fight against the pandemic, Modi reemphasised the use of micro containment protocol in dealing with the situation and asked to make full use of the experience and best practices gathered over the last one and half years in this regard.
He advised strict monitoring of the mutation and to keep a track of all variants, noting the fast mutating nature of the virus. He informed that experts are studying the mutations and their impact.
Acknowledging the impact of pandemic on tourism and business, the prime minister strongly cautioned against crowding at hill stations without observing proper precautions. Rejecting the argument that people want to enjoy before the arrival of the third wave, he said that this need to be understood that the third wave will not come on its own, and the main question in the people’s mind should be how to prevent the next wave.
Citing experts’ repeated warning against carelessness and crowding, Modi said it can lead to massive surge in cases, as he strongly advocated preventing avoidable crowding.
The prime minister said that in the ‘vaccine for all-free for all’ campaign of the central government, “Northeast too has the same importance and we need to keep accelerating the vaccination process”. To deal with the myths pertaining to vaccination and mobilising people, he asked to enlist the help of social, educational institutes, celebrities and also faith-based organisations.
He went on to urge to accelerate the vaccination drive in the areas where spread of the virus is expected.
Referring to the recent Cabinet approval of INR 23,000 crore package for improving the infrastructure for testing and treatment, Modi said that it will help strengthen the health infrastructure in Northeast, and also expedite testing, diagnostics and genome sequencing.
Stressing on the need to quickly increase number of beds, oxygen facilities and paediatric care infrastructure in Northeast, he informed that hundreds of oxygen plants are being established in the country through PM-CARES and the region too has got about 150 plants. He requested the chief ministers to complete the process of establishing these plants quickly.
He further underlined the need to establish temporary hospital due to the geographical situation of the region. While assuring all help from the central government, he asked the states to train manpower as oxygen plants, ICU wards, and new machines that are reaching two block-level hospitals will need it.
Noting the capacity of 20 lakh tests per day in the country, the prime minister highlighted the need to augment the testing infrastructure in the affected district on priority. He stressed aggressive testing along with random testing.
During the interaction, the chief ministers also briefed about the progress of vaccination in their respective states and steps taken to take vaccines to far-flung areas. They also discussed issue of vaccine hesitancy and measures being taken to overcome it.
The CMs also assured to take timely action to bring down the positivity rate as well as the number of cases in their respective states. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also briefed the gathering about the steps taken to boost supply of medical oxygen besides giving an overview of the progress of vaccination. He also emphasised on the importance of testing, tracing, tracking and vaccination.