Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the Covid-19 situation and progress of the vaccination drive in the country and was briefed about the concentration of cases “in a few geographies”.
The meeting comes at a time Kerala and Maharashtra continue to report a surge in fresh Covid-19 cases. Kerala currently contributes to more than 60 per cent of active cases in the country, while Maharashtra’s share of active cases is nearly 13 per cent.
In Friday’s meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement that Modi was briefed about the concentration of cases “in a few geographies, districts with high test positivity as well as the week-on-week test positivity rate in the country”.
The statement said: “It was discussed that across the world, there are countries where the number of active Covid cases continues to remain high. In India, too, figures from states like Maharashtra and Kerala indicate that there can be no room for complacency.”
The PMO stated that Modi spoke about the “need for constant genome sequencing” to monitor the emergence of mutants. “The officers informed him that INSACOG now consists of 28 labs distributed across the country,” the statement said. “The lab network is also linked with a hospital network for clinical correlation. Sewage sampling is also being done for genomic surveillance. PM was apprised that states have been requested to share SARS COV2 positive samples with INSACOG regularly.”
Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium, or INSACOG, is a multi-laboratory, multi-agency, pan-India network to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2 by a sentinel sequencing effort.
During the meeting, the statement said, Modi reviewed the status of augmentation of bed capacity for pediatric care. “It was discussed that States have been advised to redesign and orient primary care and block-level health infrastructure in these areas to manage the situation in rural areas. PM was also informed about the states being asked to maintain a buffer stock for drugs used in the management of Covid-19.”
Modi, the PMO stated, was briefed about the increase in isolation beds, oxygen beds, ICU beds and paediatric ICUs, as well as pediatric ventilators. The PM spoke about the need to ensure adequate testing across the country. “Officers informed the PM about the support being given to 433 districts to establish RT-PCR lab facility in public health facilities,” the statement said.
The PMO said Modi reviewed the status of PSA oxygen plants being set up across the country, and that he was updated that around 1 lakh oxygen concentrators and 3 lakh oxygen cylinders have been distributed to the states.