PM Narendra Modi to chair meet with chief ministers on COVID-19 situation today

New Delhi: Amid the unprecedented surge in the COVID-19 cases following the emergence of the Omicron variant in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (January 13, 2022) is scheduled to interact with the Chief Ministers of all states at 4:30 pm via video conferencing on the COVID situation.

This is the first meeting of the Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers of all states this year. Last year, PM Modi had held several meetings with chief ministers to discuss the COVID situation. 

PM Modi had also chaired a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation in the country on January 9. In that review meeting, the prime minister had stressed on the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level and had directed the officials to maintain coordination regarding this with the states. During the last meeting, PM Modi had said that a meeting with Chief Ministers will be convened to discuss state-specific scenarios, best practices and the public health response.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dr VK Paul, a NITI Aayog member, has also cautioned that the infection caused by the Omicron variant of coronavirus should not be considered common cold and people should not take it lightly.

"Omicron is replacing Delta variant of COVID-19 as it is highly transmissible. It should be considered as the common cold. Normally, the transmission or expansion of the pandemic would take longer but this time it has been very rapid because of the high transmissibility," he said at the Health Ministry media briefing.

Mentioning a steep surge in coronavirus cases across India, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said, "A sharp surge in COVID cases in India with the active cases 9,55,319 today. Emerging states of concern (reporting surge in COVID cases) are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and Gujarat."

"Emerging states of concerns reporting high positive rates- Maharashtra with a rate positivity rate of 22.39 per cent, West Bengal 32.18 per cent, Delhi 23.1 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 4.47 per cent," he added.

Meanwhile, India has been witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19 cases in the past few days. According to the Union Health Ministry, India reported 1,94,720 new COVID-19 cases and 442 fatalities on Wednesday. The daily positivity rate due to this virus in the country is 11.05 per cent. Active cases account for 2.65 per cent of the total cases.

(With ANI inputs)

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