Amid the grave concern of COVID-19 cases in the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a meeting with all states chief ministers and union territories. While talking to the CMs, PM stressed on the acceleration of the vaccination drive and has appealed to the CMs to observe April 11-14 as 'Tika Utsav' to inoculate as many people as possible against the contagious disease.
PM called for vaccine festival or 'Tika Utsav' after the various inputs from across the nation that many are afraid of getting vaccine shots due to which there's increasing vaccine wastage. He, however, has asked the CMs, "Can we celebrate Tika Utsav from April 11 to 14? In this period, we should vaccinate as many eligible people as possible and must achieve zero vaccine wastage target."
He also appealed to the youth to spread alertness for vaccination. He asked the states to use NCC cadets to help families in remote areas that are not technologically updated in registering for the vaccine on CoWin portal.
While addressing the state leaders, PM also said that with the advent of vaccination drive, testing capacity has reduced which is worrisome. He urged the chief ministers to strengthen their efforts for the next 2-3 weeks to contain the spread of the virus.
"Our governance has become a little weary and there can be laxity due to a one-year battle with the pandemic, however, we must gear up now. Our governance needs to improve, we must tighten the system for 2-3 to curb the spread of COVID-19," PM said.
The states also require to understand the significance of micro-containment zones.
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"We must emphasize micro-containment zones. In places where night curfew has been imposed, I would urge to use the word 'Corona Curfew', to spread awareness about coronavirus. The right time to start curfew would be from 9 pm or 10 pm till 5 am or 6 am," he added.
As we did earlier, the states need to practice similar measures including testing, tracking, treating, Covid-appropriate behavior, and Covid management to control the spike in cases.
"I appeal to you all to stress on COVID-19 testing. Our target is to do 70% RT-PCR tests. It is alright if there are more positive numbers but do maximum testing. Proper sample collection is very important, it can be checked through proper governance," he said.
India on Thursday reported the highest-ever single-day spike--1.26 lakh coronavirus cases.