India will battle Covid with “much greater pace and coordination” than last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday as he assessed the country’s Covid situation amid a frightening surge in infections. With many states declaring a lack of Covid vaccines in the midst of a rapidly expanding second wave, the Prime Minister urged officials to “use the entire national ability to scale up vaccine demand.”
“Reviewed preparedness to handle the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Aspects relating to medicines, oxygen, ventilators, and vaccination were discussed. Like we did last year, we will successfully fight COVID with even greater speed and coordination,” PM Modi said in a tweet after the meeting.
On Saturday, India’s caseload increased to 1.45 crore infections, with the nation adding 2.34 lakh new cases to the tally, the largest single-day increase so far. For the third day in a row, India saw over 2 lakh new cases in a single day; over 10 lakh cases have been reported in the last six days alone.
According to a government statement, the Prime Minister said at the meeting that “there is no alternative for testing, tracking, and treatment,” and that “local administrations must be vigilant and responsive to people’s concerns.”
Several states, like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, have poor oxygen reserves that have been red-flagged. In response to the desperate pleas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that “installation of authorized medical oxygen plants should be accelerated.”
Though hospital beds remain a major concern, with cases on the rise, PM Modi said that “all appropriate steps must be taken to ramp up the availability.”
To meet the increasing demand for numerous drugs, the full capacity of India’s pharmaceutical industry must be utilized, he said.
Delhi is one of the states that has sent an alert about the Covid situation in recent days. Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday that the city was starting to run out of beds, oxygen, and the life-saving drug Remdesivir.
