Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged the Chief Ministers of states to step up RT-PCR testing on a war-footing to detect Covid-19 cases at the early asymptomatic stage as this was the quickest way to win the war against the second wave of the deadly pandemic sweeping the country.
Increased proactive testing, intensive tracking and meticulously observing “Covid appropriate behaviour” were a must to win the war against coronavirus, PM Modi said.
He advised the chief ministers not to worry about the higher number of Covid-19 cases that the increased testing would show up as this was the most effective way of controlling the spread of the disease.
The PM observed that there had been a needless rivalry in the past with one state running down another over comparisons in the number of Covid cases. He said the number of cases would go up immediately but then this early detection would help to isolate the infected patients and prevent entire families from contracting the deadly disease.
PM Modi said “we have defeated the Covid-19 wave once and I am sure we can defeat it again as we now have the experience and more resources at our disposal.
Setting a target of 70 per cent RT-PCR tests for the states, PM Modi said it was essential to ensure that these tests were carried out properly as there were several instances of “lazy testing” where the exercise was not carried out properly and several cases went undetected leading to a faster spread of the disease.
The Prime Minister also said that states should double down on testing in the containment zones, but lockdowns should be restricted only to the immediate affected area rather than cordoning off large segments of a locality. "Our emphasis should be on micro-containment zone, we have to keep the maximum focus on it," he explained.
He called upon the country to observe a "vaccine festival" between April 11 and 14 to inoculate the maximum number of eligible beneficiaries. The PM said since the capacity to produce vaccines was limited, the inoculation campaign had to be prioritised for the more vulnerable age groups. However, more vaccines were being developed and the capacity for manufacturing of the existing vaccines was also being expanded. He also emphasized the need to limit wastage of vaccines.
He warned that those who had been vaccinated should not become careless as there was still a need for them to ensure Covid-19 protocol involving masks and social distancing.
PM Modi also advised the CMs to go in for an all-party campaign to fight the war against Covid-19 and use the institution of the Governor of a state to spearhead this effort.
The Prime Minister’s address came on a day when India’s daily count of fresh Covid cases soared to 1,26,789.
The ten worst-hit states including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala and Punjab account for 84.21% of the new cases reported in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 59,907. It is followed by Chhattisgarh with 10,310 while Karnataka reported 6,976 new cases.
India’s total Active Caseload has reached 9,10,319. Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala together account for 74.13% of India’s total active cases. Maharashtra alone accounts for 55.26% of these cases.
The national weekly positivity rate has increased by 6.21% from 2.19% in the first seven days of March to 8.40% in the fi April, 2021during this same time period.
At the same time in the fight against the global pandemic, India has crossed a landmark milestone under the world’s largest vaccination drive, which was launched on 16th Jan this year. The cumulative number of COVID19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 9 crore on Thursday.
