Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to the nation on Tuesday announced that lockdown should be the last resort and urged the state governments to focus more on micro-containment zones.
His address to the nation came just hours after the Prime Minister held a meeting with vaccine manufacturers through video conference and asked them to speed up the production capacity to vaccinate all citizens in the shortest possible time.
While the health infrastructure is currently overwhelmed by the sheer number of daily Covid-19 cases, PM Modi said that the health infrastructure of the private sector has played a “big role in the country’s fight against Covid-19” and “will play an even more active role in the vaccination drive.”
“I want to thank our doctors and all our healthcare workers for working non-stop in this fight against COVID-19 pandemic” said PM Narendra Modi.
He said, “I request State governments to urge the workers to stay where they are. This trust given by the states to the workers will help them, and that they will be vaccinated in the city where they are”
Addressing the nation on the COVID-19 situation. https://t.co/rmIUo0gkbm
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 20, 2021
Work is on to increase the number of beds in hospitals. In some cities, large COVID19 dedicated hospitals are being built, noted PM Modi.
On Tuesday, India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,53,21,089 with 2,59,170 new coronavirus infections being reported in the last 24 hours, while active cases surpassed the 20-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
On Monday, the government expanded its vaccination strategy, opening up inoculation for all above the age of 18 years starting May 1.
In a meeting about the third phase of the vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “The government has been working hard for over a year to ensure that maximum number of Indians are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible time…India is vaccinating people at world record pace and we will continue this with even greater momentum”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with vaccine manufacturers from across the country via video conferencing and said that the biggest strengths of our vaccine industry are its ‘Samarthya, Sansadhan and Seva Bhaav’, urging the vaccine manufacturers to continuously scale up their production capacity.
