PM Chaired Covid Review Meeting as Cases Surged

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Jan 9: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting through video conferencing to review the Covid-19 pandemic situation, even as the country recorded a steep rise in the number of fresh Coronavirus cases coming close to level it had reached in the mid-second wave period.

Believed to be fuelled by Omicron virus-driven surge, India on Sunday recorded a total of 1,59,632 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 224 days, while the active cases increased to 5,90,611, the highest in around 197 days, and the daily positivity rate stood at 10.21 per cent, according to Union health ministry data updated at 8 am. The Omicron tally in India has reached 3,623, with Maharashtra (1,009) continuing to top the count. Sunday’s total number of cases was the highest since India logged 1,65,553 infections on May 29, last year.

The union Home Minister Amit Shah, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and other top officials were present at the Covid review meeting. Modi had last held a Covid meeting on December 24, at which he urged officials to stay ‘satark‘ (alert) and ‘saavdhaan‘ (vigilant’) as India scrambles to contain a third wave of infections.

“In view of the new variant, we should be ‘satark‘ and ‘saavdhan‘. The fight against the pandemic is not over and the need for continued adherence to COVID safe behaviour is of paramount importance even today,” the PM had said.

Since then, India’s active cases have gone from less than 80,000 to nearly six lakh, with a worrying number of doctors and healthcare workers – the first line of defence against the virus – testing positive, including hundreds in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

Just ahead of the Budget session of Parliament, which usually begins in the end of January, nearly 400 staffers working with Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariats and allied services have tested positive for Covid-19 in the last few days, triggering a move to impose curbs on employees’ attendance. According to sources, 65 staffers of Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 200 of Lok Sabha Secretariat and 133 of allied services have tested positive for Covid-19 between January 4-8 during regular tests.

The rising Covid cases also come as five states – including Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and where medical infrastructure is patchy – prepare to hold elections in just about 30 days from now. UP, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, and Uttarakhand will hold polls over seven phases starting February 10 and continuing till March 7, the Election Commission had announced on Saturday despite a request by the Allahabad High Court to defer the elections for some time in view of the Covid emergency.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said the government had no plans to impose lockdown in the national capital yet but wants to “impose as few restrictions as possible so that people’s livelihoods are not impacted.” Delhi is expected to record over 22,000 daily cases Sunday. On Saturday, it had breached the 20,000-mark, along with Mumbai, which reported 20,318 new cases.

However, some experts have predicted that in major cities like Delhi and Mumbai, the sharp rise in the fresh cases could be arrested by the middle of the current month. They believe that the peak of the ongoing third wave in the country could go as high as eight lakh cases in a day — almost twice the peak of the second wave. “The third wave (for the country) is expected to peak somewhere in the beginning of next month or even slightly earlier…By middle of March, the third wave of the pandemic should be more or less over in India,” they said.

While the Tripura government imposed night curfew and 50 per cent restrictions on gatherings at movie halls, entertainment parks and bars, the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday cancelled his public programmes till January 15 amid a spurt in coronavirus cases in the state, which has reported over 3,000 infections in just 12 days.

Registration for the ‘precaution dose’ of COVID-19 vaccine for healthcare workers, frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with co-morbidities started on the CoWIN portal on Saturday evening. The exercise of administering the precaution dose to these category of beneficiaries will begin from Monday.