COVID-19 review meeting: Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds a video conference meeting with Chief Ministers of various states to discuss the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, Tamil Nadu CM EK Palaniswami, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar are present in the meeting. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also attending the meeting.
During the video conference meeting, Modi said,” Every state is fighting the battle against the challenging situation arising due to COVID19 pandemic. Role of each and every state is very significant in overall control of the spread of the disease,”,” he said. He also added that the average fatality rate has been continuously decreasing while the recovery rate is increasing every day, this shows that measures being taken by us are in the right direction.
Modi also stressed on the importance of testing to quickly trace, track, and isolate those affected. He said,” Experts are saying now that if within 72 hours, a person is diagnosed, then the spread can be controlled to a great extent. So, it is important that all the people who come in contact with an infected person must be tested within 72 hours.”
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had said the current gap of 35% in State Disaster Relief Fund for COVID-19 related expenditure, as per MHA guidelines, is not sufficient to meet current requirements of the state.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu CM K Palaniswami told Modi, “We have received Rs 512.64 crore from Centre in two tranches under Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness package out of Rs 712.64 crore allotted to the state. I request this package may be stepped up to Rs 3,000 crore as my earlier request.”
The meet assumes significance as these 10 states have a high population density and the idea is to bring down the virus caseload. This was the seventh video conference of the prime ministers with the states since the outbreak of the pandemic. This was also the first meeting of the prime minister with chief ministers during unlocking 3 on the pandemic. PM Modi’s last meeting with Chief Ministers to discuss the coronavirus crisis was in June. On Monday, the Prime Minister had held a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of six states – Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala – to review the flood situation there.
