New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday chaired a highlevel meeting to review the Covid-19 related situation, and reviewed the prevailing Covid19 scenario, preparedness of the health systems to respond, availability of medical oxygen and matters relating to production, supply and distribution of Covid-19 vaccine.
An official 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, the figures from states like Maharashtra and Kerala, indicate that there can be no room for complacency. However, the weekly positivity was at less than 3 per cent for the 10th consecutive week.
The Prime Minister 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.
He spoke about the need for constant genome sequencing to monitor emergence of mutants.
“The officers informed him that INSACOG now consists of 28 labs distributed across the country. 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,” an official statement said.
He also reviewed the status of augmentation of bed capacity for pediatric care and augmentation of facilities supported under ‘COVID Emergency Response Package II’. States were also advised to redesign and orient primary care and block level health infrastructure in these areas to manage the situation in rural areas.
PM Modi was also informed about the states being asked to maintain a buffer stock of drugs used in management of Covid19, Mucormycosis, MIS-C at the district level.
“PM was briefed about the increase in isolation beds, oxygen beds, ICU beds and paediatric ICUs and pediatric ventilators. A significant number of ICU beds and Oxygen beds will be further added in the coming months,” the statement said.
PM Modi 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 Prime Minister stressed that the entire ecosystem should ensure increased oxygen availability, including oxygen concentrators, cylinders and PSA plants, need to be rapidly augmented.
The Health Ministry also said efforts are also on to install 961 Liquid Medical Oxygen Storage Tanks and 1,450 Medical Gas Pipeline Systems with an aim to support at least one such unit per district.
The Ambulance network is also being augmented to ensure at least one ambulance per block.
The Prime Minister also reviewed the status of PSA oxygen plants coming up across the country.
He was also updated that around 1 lakh oxygen concentrators and 3 lakh oxygen cylinders have been distributed to the states.
On Vaccines, the PM was apprised that around 58 per cent of India’s adult population has received the first dose and around 18 per cent of India’s adult population has received the second dose. PM was updated about the vaccine pipeline and increased supply of vaccines.
