PM Modi stresses on local containment
Source: Chronicle News Service

New Delhi, January 13 2022: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked chief ministers to ensure minimum damage to the livelihood of common people and economic activities as they work to contain the coronavirus, while noting that its Omicron variant is infecting people many times faster than earlier variants.

"We have to be alert, be careful.

But we also have to ensure that there is no panic situation.

We have to see that in this festive season, the alertness of people and administration is not lowered anywhere," he told chief ministers at a virtual meeting to review public health preparedness and the ongoing vaccination programme.

In his remarks at the meeting, the Prime Minister underlined the importance of vaccination and the need to further accelerate the 'Har Ghar Dastak' programme to achieve 100 per cent vaccination coverage.

Irrespective of the virus variant, vaccine remains the only proven way to tackle the pandemic, and made in India vaccines are proving their superiority all over the world, he said.

"In order to defeat coronavirus we need to keep our readiness ahead of every variant.

Along with tackling Omicron, we need to start preparing for any future variant from now itself," he said.

India has given the first dose of vaccines to about 92 per cent of its adult population while 70 per cent received both doses, he noted.

It has also vaccinated nearly three crore adolescents within 10 days and this shows India's potential and its preparedness to deal with this challenge, Modi said.

With any stringent lockdown affecting a large area likely to hit the economy hard, Modi asked chief ministers and heads of governments at various union territories to focus more on local containment and maintaining the momentum in the economy.

Modi stressed that states should be in a position to provide maximum treatment to infected population in home isolation.

Modi asserted that it is very important to safeguard the economy and the livelihood of common people while framing Covid containment strategies.

"There should be minimum damage to the livelihood of the common people, economic activities, and the momentum of the economy be maintained.

It is very important to keep these things in mind while making any (containment) strategy," Modi said.

"So it would be better to focus more on local containment," he added.

Modi lauded the states for using the Rs 23,000-crore package given to them to revamp the health infrastructure.

Under this more than 800 paediatric units all over the country, 1.5 lakh new ICU and HDU beds, more than five thousand special ambulances, more than 950 liquid medical oxygen storage tank capacity have been added.

An official statement said chief ministers thanked Modi for his leader ship during the successive waves of COVID-19, especially for his support and central funds for boosting health infrastructure in states.

Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also attended the meeting, with officials sharing the latest updates on the pandemic situation.

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