With the first week of the nationwide lockdown limiting the spread of COVID-19 to some extent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the focus for the next a few weeks should be on “testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine.”
Addressing a video conference with the state chief ministers, the prime minister said it was important for states to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once lockdown ends. He asked the states to brainstorm and send suggestions for the exit strategy. He reiterated the importance of social distancing in preventing the spread of COVID-19. This hints that the government would go in for limited opening up of the business establishments after April 14.
During the meeting, Union Home Minister Amit Shah stressed upon the need to implement lockdown more strictly in some states and the importance of effective district level implementation of the guidelines issued by the Centre.
Union Health Secretary apprised the dignitaries of the rise in number of cases in India, spread of cases from Nizamuddin Markaz, preparations to tackle medical cases arising out of further spread of the virus and need to break transmission chain in the districts with high number of confirmed cases.
The prime minister said the global situation was far from satisfactory and talked about speculations of a possible second wave of spread of the virus in some countries.
As India is in the midst of the crucial two-week period, PM highlighted the necessity of maintaining supply of essential medical products, availability of raw material for manufacture of medicines and medical equipment. The prime minister talked about the need for setting up crisis management groups at district level and appointment of district surveillance officers. He said data must be taken from the accredited labs for testing--this will ensure congruence in data of districts, states and the Centre.
“It is imperative to work on war footing, identify hotspots of the virus, encircle them and ensure that the virus does-not spread out. It is pertinent to maintain peace, and law and order across the country. The COVID-19 has attacked our faith and belief and is threatening our way of life. The leaders should reach out to community leaders and social welfare organisations at state, district, town and block levels to build up a united front-based on community-approach in the battle against the pandemic,” Modi said.
PM suggested that to ensure availability of separate, dedicated hospital facilities for COVID-19 patients and overcome shortage of doctors, the states should tap into the resource pool of AYUSH doctors, organise online training and utilise para-medical staff, NCC and NSS volunteers.
The chief ministers shared their experience of handling the crisis and asked for funds. “They spoke about the importance of mobilising resources, financial as well as medical, to mitigate the crisis,” the government statement quoting CMs said.
Modi said considering that harvest season had set in, the government has given some relaxation from lockdown. But at the same time it was necessary to continuously monitor and maintain social distancing as much as possible, he said. He asked chief ministers to think of newer means for procurement of grains apart from the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee), and create newer platforms using similar methodology adopted by ride-sharing apps.
