New Delhi: Bogged by the second wave of Coronavirus across the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired an all-Chief Ministers' virtual meeting to take stock of the concerning Covid-19 situation and vaccination drive.
Addressing the Chief Ministers, PM Modi said that: "A challenging situation is emerging again. I request you all to give your suggestions to tackle the Covid-19 situation."
Sharing suggestions with CMs to tackle the second wave of Coronavirus said, "Several states have crossed the threshold of the first wave and some are reaching that mark. We are better equipped than the first time. We have experience and have the vaccine as well this time."
PM Modi also pointed out that the country has already crossed the time of the peak of the first wave. The growth rate this time is faster than the first wave.
"People have turned casual compared to the last time. Administration, too, seems to be lazy," he said.
While sharing one important way to stop the spread, PM Modi stressed on setting up "micro containment zones" in areas that have a large number of Covid-19 cases.
"Infrastructure is required for proper sampling. These days we are getting multiple erratic results from various labs. From our governance we have to figure out that the sampling is done right," he said.
"Let's Celebrate 'Teeka Utsav' (Inoculation fest) from April 11 to April 14. I encourage youth to help us getting everyone above 45 vaccinated," PM Modi said during his meeting with CMs.
The meeting was attended by Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy.
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Several Central ministers including Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and Home Minister Amit Shah also attended the meeting.
Prime Minister's meeting with Chief Ministers of various states and Union Territories (UTs) comes on a day when India registered a record single-day spike of 1,26,789 new Covid-19 cases, pushing its infection tally to 1,29,28,574, while the number of active cases too went upwards to breach the nine lakh-mark again.
Active cases have crossed the 900,000-mark and now stand at 910,319. With this, India is now the fourth worst-hit country in terms of active cases.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi took his second dose of the Coronavirus vaccine at the AIIMS here and asked those eligible for the shot to take it soon to defeat the virus.