Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a meeting to review the pandemic situation in the country in the wake of the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease.
A government release on the meeting said the PM asked senior officials to maintain a high level of vigil and alertness. He directed the Centre to work in close coordination with states and support their efforts of public health measures towards containment and management under the ‘Whole of Government’ approach. The strategy of the Centre for proactive, focussed, collaborative and cooperative fight against the pandemic should guide “all our future actions”, the PM said.
“In view of the new variant, we should be ‘satark’ (alert) and ‘saavdhan’ (take precaution),” the PM added.
The fight against the pandemic is not over, he said, stressing the need for continued adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour.
Further, Modi directed the officials to ensure that health systems in the states, beginning from the district level, are strengthened to meet any challenge posed by the Omicron variant.
{{/usCountry}}Further, Modi directed the officials to ensure that health systems in the states, beginning from the district level, are strengthened to meet any challenge posed by the Omicron variant.
{{/usCountry}}“It is important for states to ensure that the oxygen supply equipment are installed and fully functional,” he said. He directed the officials to work with the state authorities on a regular basis and review the status of preparedness of various components of health infrastructure, including training and capacity building of human resources, timely availability of ambulances, readiness of states to operationalise Covid facilities for institutional quarantining, and effective and supervised monitoring of those in home isolation.
He also directed officials for effective use of tech tools for tele-medicine and tele-consultation.
The country saw a significant rise in the daily Covid-19 tally with 7,495 new cases being reported in the last 24 hours. The cumulative count of Omicron cases also neared 300 with a number of infections from the new strain being detected from across states.
Earlier in the day, the Centre held another review meeting with states wherein the latter, especially those awaiting Assembly election early next year, was asked to expedite vaccination coverage in the wake of Omicron's spread.
The Centre also asked the states to consider local curbs and restrictions ahead of the upcoming festive week.