PremiumNEW DELHI : With India reeling under a national medical emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the public health response to covid-19, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
“PM noted that an advisory was sent to the states to identify districts of concern where case positivity is 10% or more and bed occupancy is more than 60% on either oxygen supported or ICU beds," the statement said.
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Premium Premium The Union health ministry had earlier asked the states and Union territories to identify districts that should be considered for taking intensive and local containment measures.
The meeting was attended by top officials and ministers, including defence minister Rajnath Singh; home minister Amit Shah; finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman; health and family welfare minister Dr Harsh Vardhan; railways, commerce and industry, consumer affairs and food and public distribution minister and minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers, ports, shipping and waterways Mansukh Mandaviya.
“PM also reviewed the availability of medicines. He was briefed about the rapid augmenting of production of medicines, including remdesivir," the statement added.
With India facing a massive surge in covid cases, the Union government has been facing increasing criticism over its mishandling of the second wave, including censure from the courts.
This comes against the backdrop of a second wave continuing to rage across the country, with 412,262 new covid cases registered in the past 24 hours. According to ministry of health and family welfare data, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan accounted for 72.19% of the new cases.
“PM reviewed the progress on vaccination and the roadmap for scaling up production of vaccines in the next few months. He was informed that around 17.7 crore vaccines have been supplied to the states. The PM also reviewed the state-wise trends on vaccine wastage. PM was briefed that around 31% of eligible population over the age of 45 has been given at least one dose. PM spoke about the need to sensitize states that the speed of vaccination doesn’t come down," the statement said.
The severe second wave has exposed India’s creaking healthcare system, with acute shortages of oxygen, ventilators, vaccines, testing kits, hospital beds, and intensive care units (ICUs) across states.
“The need to ensure quick and holistic containment measures was also discussed," the statement said.
The Union government on its part has been trying to find solutions with plans of setting up temporary hospitals having oxygenated beds near those industries that produce gaseous oxygen and repurposing existing nitrogen plants to produce oxygen. Also, around 1,500 pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants are also being set up through contributions from the PM Cares Fund and state-run firms, among others.
With the second wave impacting state finances, the Union government has released in advance Rs8,873.6 crore as the first instalment of its share of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for the current financial year. Also, up to 50% of the SDRF amount can be used by the states for covid-19 containment measures.
Rating agency Standard and Poor’s has also cautioned that India’s second wave could knock off 1.2-2.8 percentage points from its 11% GDP growth estimate for FY22, derailing what has been a promising recovery in the economy, profits, and credit metrics in the year to date.
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