New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that a meeting with Chief Ministers should be convened soon to discuss State-specific public health responses and best practices at the local level, as he reviewed the preparedness to deal with the pandemic on a day when the country reported 175,972 new Covid-19 cases.
Modi underscored the need to focus on testing, genome sequencing and vaccination at a review meeting for Covid as the number of fresh infections threatened to spiral out of control, driven by the highly infectious strain Omicron.
‘There is a need for continuous scientific research in testing , vaccines and pharmacological interventions including genome sequencing given that the virus is evolving continuously,’ the Prime Minister said, according to a government statement.
He directed officials to ensure adequate health infrastructure at the district level and to accelerate the vaccination drive for adolescents aged 15-18 years and frontline health workers in “mission mode” amid the looming threat of Omicron, the new variant of concern, said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Prime Minister also directed officials to ensure the continuity of non-Covid health services and leverage telemedicine to ramp up the availability of health-related guidance to people in remote and rural areas.