Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the recent union cabinet approval of Rs 23,000 crore package for improving the infrastructure for testing and treatment of Covid-19 in the country will help in strengthening the health infrastructure of North East including testing, diagnostics, genome sequencing.
Modi today interacted with Chief Ministers of the North-East states on the Covid-19 situation. The interaction was attended by the Chief Ministers of Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam.
The Prime Minister stressed the need for quickly increasing the number of beds, oxygen facilities and paediatric care infrastructure in the North East.
Informing that hundreds of oxygen plants are being established in the country through PM-Cares and North East too, about 150 plants, Modi requested the Chief Ministers to complete the process of establishing these plants quickly.
The Prime Minister underlined the need to establish temporary hospitals due to the geographical situation of the North East.
“Considering the geographical location of the North East, it is also very important to build temporary hospitals. Trained manpower is also necessary to run the oxygen plants that are being set up, the ICU wards being built, the new machines that are being delivered to the block level hospitals. The central government will provide whatever help you need in this regard,” he said.
Noting the capacity of 20 lakh tests per day in the country, the Prime Minister highlighted the need to augment the testing infrastructure in the affected district of North East on priority. He stressed aggressive testing along with random testing.
Modi also lauded the people, health workers and the governments of North East for their hard work in the fight against the pandemic and creating infrastructure for testing, treatment and vaccination despite the difficult terrain of the states.
He expressed his worry over the growing number of cases in some districts and stressed the need to catch these signals and take strict actions at the micro level. He emphasised the use of micro containment protocol in dealing with the situation and said there was need to make full use of the experience and best practices gathered over the last one and half years in this regard.
Noting the fast mutating nature of the virus, the Prime Minister advised strict monitoring of the mutation and to keep track of all Covid-19 variants while also emphasising Covid appropriate behaviour.
Acknowledging the impact of pandemic on tourism and business, Modi strongly cautioned against crowding at hill stations without observing proper precautions. Rejecting the argument that people want to enjoy before the arrival of the third wave, he said that it has to be understood that the third wave will not come on its own. He strongly advocated preventing avoidable crowding.
The Prime Minister said that in the ‘vaccine for all, free for all’ campaign of the central government, North East too has the same importance and states in the region need to keep accelerating the vaccination process especially in the areas where spread of the virus is expected.
To deal with the myths pertaining to vaccination and mobilising people, Modi asked the North East states to enlist the help of social, educational institutes, celebrities and also the organisations of religious faith.
