PM Narendra Modi on Thursday asked chief ministers to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the 21-day lockdown ends.
The PM who asked the chief ministers to send across suggestions on how to exit the lockdown stressed on the importance of social distancing. India has “achieved some success” in limiting the spread of COVID-19, the prime minister told chief ministers at a conference with chief ministers via video conference.
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This was PM MODI’s second video conference with chief ministers on tackling the huge challenge posed by the coronavirus disease. The first was on March 20.
PM Modi, who heard the chief ministers praise the center for the nationwide lockdown ordered nearly 10 days ago, said the country’s common goal is to ensure minimum loss of life.
“In the next few weeks, testing, tracing, isolation, and quarantine should remain the areas of focus,” he said, emphasizing the necessity of providing a supply of essential medical products, availability of raw material for the manufacture of medicines and medical equipment.
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PM Modi and other central government functionaries also stressed enforcing the lockdown, helping the poor cope with food and contact tracing of people known to have been infected with the deadly virus, particularly in the context of the Tablighi Jamaat participants.
Home Minister Amit Shah talked about the need to implement lockdown more strictly in some states and the importance of effective district-level implementation of the guidelines issued by the center.
Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan updated the Chief Ministers of the rise in the number of cases in India. She also outlined the spread of cases from Nizamuddin Markaz and the center’s preparations to tackle medical cases arising out of the further spread of the virus and need to break transmission chain in the districts with the high number of confirmed cases.
