By Raju Vernekar
New Delhi/Mumbai:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday during a virtual meeting with chief ministers of seven states, granted permission to spend 50 per cent of the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) to check the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
“Today, I announce that the states can spend 50 per cent of the SDRF amount on efforts to check the spread of Covid-19. This limit was earlier 35 per cent,” PM Modi said. He also emphasised that micro zones should be formed for effective management of the coronavirus disease and highlighted the importance of masks and said it is a very important tool in fight against Covid-19 and added that ”We need to increase our focus on effective testing, tracing, treatment, surveillance and clear messaging”.
“Effective messaging is also necessary because most Covid-19 infections are without symptoms. In such a situation, rumours may rise and might raise doubts in the minds of the people that testing is bad. Some people also make mistake of underestimating the severity of infection,” he added.
The Prime Minister said that India has ensured the supply of life-saving medicines all over the world even in difficult times and we have to ensure that the medicines easily reach from one state to another.
The states with high Covid-19 caseload are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Punjab and over 63 per of the active cases are concentrated in these states. They also account for 65.5 per cent of the total confirmed cases and 77 per cent of the total deaths.
Modi appreciated the efforts being made by the states to check the spread of the disease and suggested that they should “assess effectiveness of 1 or 2-day lockdowns and consider if they hamper economic activities.”
In the meeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray suggested that the PM should address the nation to clarify the COVID-19 situation across the country. Besides he called for control on production, distribution and prices of oxygen.
Thackeray informed the meeting about a campaign “May Family, My Responsibility” launched by the state government under which 59,000 teams are visiting households for health check up of the people and till now over 2.83 lakh people were examined. The campaign would help reduce the number of COVID-19 positive cases.
In the meanwhile Maharashtra Government is planning to augment testing capacity up to
1.50 lakh tests per day. Besides, the Tele ICUs have been set up on an experimental basis in certain parts and the efforts are on to extend this facility to an inaccessible areas of the state. Besides the oxygen manufacturers have been asked to ensure 80 per cent supply for medicinal use and 20 per cent to other industries.
