Ramp up COVID-19 testing, ensure distribution of oxygen supply: PM Modi in review meet

PM Modi held a COVID-19 review meeting and discussed matters including ramping up COVID-19 testing, preparing localised containment strategies and speeding up the nationwide innoculation drive.

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on the COVID-19 situation on Saturday and instructed that COVID-19 testing needs to be scaled up further in areas with high test positivity rates.

In the meeting a range of issues were discussed including ramping up COVID-19 testing, preparing localised containment strategies, augmenting health capacities in rural areas and speeding up the nationwide inoculation drive, PM Modi said in a tweet after the meeting.

Discussed a number of issues during today’s review meeting on COVID-19, including scaling up testing in areas with high TPR, preparing localised containment strategies, augmenting health capacities in rural areas and ramping up the speed of vaccination. https://t.co/ysQmtDiZAQ — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 15, 2021

A release by the Prime Minister`s Office (PMO) read: "PM Modi further said that states should be encouraged to report their numbers in a transparent manner without any pressure of high numbers showing adversely on their efforts. PM also asked for augmentation of healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on door to door testing and surveillance."

The Prime Minister urged for boosting of healthcare resources in rural areas and pointed out that the focus should be on door-to-door testing and surveillance. He also directed officials to ensure proper distribution of oxygen supply in rural areas.

The PM was briefed about the COVID-19 vaccination process and the state-wise coverage of 45+ population. He asked officials to work states to ramp up the vaccination process across the country.

Meanwhile, India reported 3,26,098 new COVID-19 cases, taking country’s caseload to 2,43,72,907. While 3,890 COVID-19 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 2,66,207, as per Union Health Ministry's data on Saturday.