Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called upon all states in the Northeast region that are facing unabated surge in COVID-19 spread to act fast and prevent the looming third wave of the pandemic. He said the NE governments can take help from the Union cabinet approved new package of Rs 23,000 crore to strengthen health infrastructure in their respective states.
"The cabinet has approved a new package of Rs 23,000 crore for improving medical infrastructure related to testing and treatment. Every state in the North East can take help from this package to strengthen its health infrastructure," Modi said at a virtual meeting with chief ministers of eight North-Eastern states on Tuesday.
The prime minister called upon the chief ministers of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram to work together to prevent the third wave of the pandemic.
“There are some districts of the North East where cases of infection are increasing. We have to understand these signals. We need to be more alert and people will also have to be told to remain alert constantly,” he said.
The prime minister also called to take stricter steps at the micro level to prevent the spread of infection.
"The more emphasis we put on the micro-containment zones, we will come out of this situation sooner," he said, adding, "There will be some districts, some villages and some officers in your state who would have handled these situations in a very innovative way. We will benefit more if we identify these best practices and publicize them".
Pointing out the need to keep an eye on each variant of the Coronavirus because it is polymorphic and poses new challenges, Modi said, "Experts are constantly studying about how devastating it will be after the mutation. The entire team is watching every change closely. In such a situation, prevention and treatment is very important. We have to put our entire energy and focus only on these two measures".
Modi also stressed upon the need to ramp up vaccination drive to combat the pandemic effectively.
"The severity of the virus will weaken if we continue to maintain a distance of two yards, wear a mask and get vaccinated... We will be able to save more lives if we continue with our strategy of testing, tracking and treatment, and improve our infrastructure," he said.
Expressing concern over lack of Covid appropriate behaviour in gathering of huge crowds in hill stations and market areas, he urged the people not to compromise on Covid protocols.
"It is true that tourism, trade and business have been greatly affected due to Corona. But today I will emphasise that it is a matter of concern that people visiting hill stations and markets are not wearing masks and not following protocol. This is not right," he said.
Modi also urged the chief ministers of the states to continuously encourage every citizen to follow the rules made for corona prevention. "We will have to make efforts to involve the civil society and heads of religious organizations," he said.
The virtual conference of chief ministers of NE states on Tuesday was also attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and new Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, MoS Health Bharati Pawar, new DoNER Minister Kishan Reddy and MoS BL Verma.
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