Amid severe oxygen crisis, PM Narendra Modi reviews COVID-19 situation with high-burden states

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting on Friday with chief ministers of 10 states with the most number of COVID-19 cases. The meeting via video conferencing comes amid a huge surge in coronavirus cases, which have now clocked a daily total of over 3 lakh in the country.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on Friday with the chief ministers of 10 states with the most number of COVID-19 cases. The meeting via video conferencing comes amid a huge surge in coronavirus cases, which have now clocked a daily total of over 3 lakh in the country.

Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi are among those who attended the meeting.

Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs a meeting with the Chief Ministers of high burden states, over the prevailing #COVID19 situation pic.twitter.com/u91CKrGOLJ — ANI (@ANI) April 23, 2021

During the high-level meeting, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal requested the PM to direct chief ministers of all states to ensure smooth movement of oxygen tankers coming to the national capital.

Delhi CM Kejriwal said, “Oxygen supply scheduled to come to Delhi from Odisha, West Bengal be airlifted or brought through Oxygen express.’’

“Centre should take over all the oxygen plants through Army, every truck should be accompanied by Army escort vehicle,” Kejriwal added.

"People are in major pain due to oxygen shortage. We fear a big tragedy may happen due to oxygen shortage and we will never be able to forgive ourselves. I request you with folded hands to direct all CMs to ensure smooth movement of oxygen tankers coming to Delhi," the AAP chief said during the meeting.

"We need a national plan to deal with the crisis. Centre government should take over all oxygen plants through the Army and every tanker coming out of the oxygen plant should be accompanied by an Army escort vehicle," he said.

State governments should get COVID-19 vaccines at similar rates as the Central govt, the Delhi CM said further.

PM Modi will also hold a meeting with leading oxygen manufacturers in the country via video conference amid concerns expressed by some states that their supply of the life-saving gas is running short with a number of hospitals sending out SOS.

With the COVID cases rising at a rapid pace in the country, PM Modi has been chairing regular meetings to review the situation. He had also addressed the nation on Tuesday.

In his address to the nation on Tuesday, PM Modi had urged people to follow right discipline to safeguard everyone against the novel coronavirus. He also urged states to let lockdown be the last resort and to instead focus in micro-containment zones to handle the pandemic.

Creating a world record of the highest single-day surge, India recorded 3,14,835 fresh coronavirus infections, pushing the cumulative tally to 1,59,30,965 on Thursday, as per data by the Health Ministry.

The country's total COVID-19 caseload climbed to over 1.59 crore, of which, 22.91 lakh (22,91,428) were active cases. India also witnessed 1,84,657 deaths due to the deadly infection.