Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday will interact with chief ministers of all states on the COVID-19 situation in the country. According to the details, the meet which comes amid surging cases of coronavirus following the emergence of the Omicron variant will be held via video conferencing at 4:30 pm today.
This is the first meeting of the prime minister with the chief ministers of all states this year. PM Modi has held several meetings with chief ministers last year.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Dr. VK Paul, a NITI Aayog member, had 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.
The prime minister had also chaired a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation in the country on January 9, through a video conference.
During that review meeting, PM Modi had stressed the need to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level. He had asked officials to maintain coordination regarding this with the states.
(With inputs from ANI)
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