From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Nov 24: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories witnessing sudden spurt in COVID-19 cases after the festive season.’
India's Corona virus tally rose to 91,77,841 on Monday with 37,975 new infections, while the death toll increased to 1,34,218 after the country recorded 480 new deaths.
Modi is holding another meeting with states and UTs to discuss vaccine distribution strategy in the country.
Karnataka was represented by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Revenue Minister R Ashok, Social Welfare Minister B Sriramulu, Chief Secretary T M Vijaya Bhaskar and other senior officials.
The Prime Minister’s meeting with Chief Ministers comes a day after the Supreme Court as the Centre and all states to file within two days the status reports detailing steps taken to deal with the current Covid-19 situation, noting that the pandemic has "worsened.’’
Shah asks CMs to bring down mortality rate below 1%
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who participated in the meeting, asked the Chief Ministers to ensure the mortality rate due to the coronavirus disease comes down below 1% and the positivity rate below 5%.
The most important measure, Shah told the Chief Ministers, to take was to reshape the containment zone strategy.
Officials must visit the red zones every week and based on the data collected, change the status of a particular area, he said.
While the national daily COVID-19 case count has remained below 50,000 for some time, several urban centres have witnessed a surge, resulting in enforcement of several measures, including curfews in some cities.
The Himachal Pradesh government imposed a night curfew in four districts from Tuesday, while Maharashtra made it mandatory to undergo RT-PCR test for all passengers landing in Mumbai from Delhi, Gujarat, Goa and Maharashtra.
Uttar Pradesh is already testing Delhi residents at its border. The Yogi Adityanath government also capped the wedding guest limit to 100 on Monday.
On Sunday, high-level central teams were deputed to Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to support them in COVID-19 response and management. These states have been either reporting a rise in the number of active cases — those who are hospitalised or are in home isolation under medical supervision, or demonstrating a rise in the daily new cases of coronavirus infections, the Union Health Ministry said.
The Prime Minister has held several virtual meetings with states over the coronavirus situation.
The Central government has also been putting in place measures for quick and effective distribution of coronavirus vaccine when it becomes available. Five vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India, out of which four are in Phase II/III and one is in Phase-I/II trials.
As the world anticipates the first COVID-19 vaccines, AstraZeneca and Oxford announced their candidate is 70% effective on average. India may see its first COVID-19 vaccine in the market towards the end of 2020 or early 2021, and may be priced at Rs 1,000 per dose.
An estimated one crore frontline health workers will receive the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine whenever it becomes available, with around 92 % of government hospitals and 55 % of private hospitals across all states and UTs providing data identifying the workers.