Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday chaired a Union Cabinet meeting as India has become the seventh worst-hit country with the total number of coronavirus cases crossing 1.90 lakh.
This was the first meeting of the Union Cabinet after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government entered into its second year in office.
According to government officials, several “important decisions” were expected to be announced during the meeting.
With 8,392 fresh cases of novel Coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours, India’s tally rose to 1,90,535 on Monday becoming the seventh worst -hit country in the world due to the pandemic. Out of these 93,322 are active cases while 91,818 have recovered according to ministry of health. The virus has claimed 5,394 lives in the country. As many as 230 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours.
However, according to the ICMR, India is witnessing a steady improvement in the COVID-19 recovery rate. The recovery rate has now risen to 48.2 percent as of 1 June.
The meeting also comes in the wake of India relaxing lockdown restrictions from Monday as Centre’s ‘Unlockdown’ strategy goes into effect. The lockdown 5.0 is now limited only to containment zones for a month till June 30 and states are allowed to resume normal life outside containment zones.
The Centre’s three-phase unlock plan that will restrict curbs to containment zones kicks in from today after the end of the fourth phase of the national lockdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cautioned people against showing any laxity in the fight against coronavirus and asked them to be “extra alert and careful”, while acknowledging that the poor and labourers have been hit the hardest by the crisis. “Becoming careless or lackadaisical cannot be an option”.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Security and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs are also expected to have attended the meeting.
The meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security comes amid standoff between India and China in Ladakh.