Quick steps needed to stop ‘second peak’: PM Modi cautions ‘carelessness’ against Covid-19

Expressing concern over the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in some states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said the relative success of India in dealing with the pandemic should not give way to “carelessness” and people should seriously follow the ‘Test, Track and Treat’ formula to stop this emerging “second peak” of the virus.

PM Modi, who was addressing the chief ministers of different states through video conferencing, said failing to stop the rising second peak of the virus might create a national outbreak-like situation and quick and decisive steps are the need of the hour.

“The number of cases is increasing in some states. This increase is more than 150 percent in 70 districts of the country. We must stop this emerging “second peak” of Corona immediately,” he said.

“The position we have reached in the fight against corona, the confidence we have now, should not give way to carelessness,” he added.

The prime minister also stressed the need to scale up the rate of RT-PCR tests, with a special focus on small cities and towns. “We need to be as serious about ‘Test, Track and Treat’ as we have been doing for the last one year. Contacts of every infected person have to be tracked as soon as possible and RT-PCR test rate has to be kept higher than 70 per cent,” he said.

“In several states, rapid antigen testing is being stressed upon which needs transformation. Every state in the country needs to stress more on RT-PCR test,” he added.

Speaking on the ongoing vaccination drive, PM Modi said the country has crossed the figure of vaccinating 3 million people in a single day. However, certain states are reporting 10 per cent vaccine wastage, he said.

“We have to take the problem of wastage of vaccine doses very seriously. There should be zero wastage of vaccine,” the PM said, adding that there is a need to increase vaccination centers both in the private and public sectors.

The meeting was also attended by Home Minister Amit Shah. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel skipped the meeting.