PM TAKES DISTRICT ROUTE TO CURB COVID, HEALTH MINISTRY SEES SILVER LINING

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold two meetings with the District Magistrate (DMs) of districts of 19 states with a high caseload to review the Covid-19 situation and measures taken to deal with it, official sources said on Thursday.

“Prime Minister Modi to hold two meetings with DMs of districts with a high caseload. The meeting will be held on May 18th and 20th, with DMs of 46 districts across 9 states and 54 districts across 10 states respectively,” sources told ANI. They added that the Chief Minister of these states will also be present in these meetings.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday informed that as many as 187 districts have shown a continuous decline in cases in the last two weeks.

Addressing a press conference, Joint Secretary of Union Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said: “There are 12 states/UTs in the country with more than one lakh Covid-19 active cases, while there are 8 states/UTs with active cases between 50,000 to one lakh and 16 states/UTs with less than 50,000 active Covid-19 cases.”

“Bihar has seen a decline in the Covid-19 active cases, while Jammu and Kashmir witnessed an increase,” he pointed out.

Agarwal also mentioned that there are 24 states/UTs with more than 15 per cent positivity rate. “As many as 187 districts have shown a continued decline in cases in last 2 weeks. These districts include Nashik, Jalgaon, Thane, Nagpur and Chandrapur in Maharashtra, Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat, Gwalior, Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Alwar in Rajasthan,” he added.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the availability and supply of oxygen and medicines in the wake of the surge of Covid-19 cases in the country, where he was briefed how the government is actively monitoring the supply of drugs being used in the management of Covid-19 as well Mucormycosis.

Active Covid-19 cases had seen a drop for two consecutive days on 11 and 12 May after a gap of 61 days. The trend, however, did not continue on Thursday.

With 362,727 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, India on Thursday reported a slight rise in Covid-19 cases, about 15,000 more than the previous day. As per the Union Health Ministry, as many as 348,421 new cases were reported on Wednesday. There were 352,181 discharges and 4,120 deaths reported in India in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Thursday.

The total positive cases in the country so far stand at 2,37,03,665. This includes 1,97,34,823 recoveries and 258,317 reported deaths. There are currently 37,10,525 active cases in the country. A total of 17,72,14,256 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered so far.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS