Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting as Covid cases are rising at an alarming pace in India again. The country saw a huge surge in the number of Covid cases being reported since yesterday. As many as 7,495 were reported in the last 24 hours alone.
Almost every state has started reporting cases of Omicron following its outbreak in the country last week. To address the situation, Modi called officials to discuss the plans to thwart the swiftly-rising cases of Covid in India.
The meeting, which was attended by health officials and others, lasted for about an hour. Modi asked officers to improve stock of medicine and oxygen across hospitals. He also insisted on increasing the vaccination rate.
The Prime Minister told officials to seek feedback from states and address the problems being faced in vaccination. Over 139 crore vaccine doses have been given to people across India, covering about 40.5% of the population.
Meanwhile, India has reported over 355 cases of the Omicron– the new Covid variant– across 16 states and UTs so far out of which 104 people have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
Maharashtra (65) has reported the highest number of Omicron cases, followed by Delhi (64) and Telangana (38).
Owing to huge cases in Mumbai, CM Uddav Thackeray is also set to hold a meeting with Covid Task Force at 10 PM today via video conferencing. Pertinently, the Madhya Pradesh government also ordered a Night Curfew from 11 PM to 5 AM.
Centre had earlier said the new variant– Omicron 3 – is three times more transmissible than its delta variant.