Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to hold a fresh round of consultation with chief ministers of different states and Union Territories next week on the Coronavirus situation in the country as infections have spiked at an alarming rate in the past two weeks following considerable relaxations in lockdown measures.
Under “Unlock 1” which rolled out on June 8, several relaxations have been made for public and businesses to ensure that economic activities hit by the lockdown gather momentum.
According to government sources, PM Modi will hold the video conferencing with the chief ministers on June 16 and 17.
It is learnt that the states and UTs could be divided into two groups and two days are dedicated so that the Prime Minister can listen to all the Chief Ministers.
Sources quoted by IANS, have said that Delhi, which has been witnessing a sudden spike in numbers, will feature on the second day.
If the meeting happens, it would be Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sixth round of consultation with the chief ministers, the last being on May 11.
Home Minister Amit Shah spoke with all the chief ministers over telephone in the last week of May, just before lockdown 4.0 was to end.
India on Saturday crossed 3 lakh-mark as it reported the highest single-day spike of 11,458 new Coronavirus cases taking the total tally to 3,08,993. As many as 386 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours taking the total number of fatalities to 8,884, according to the Ministry of Health.
However, the only matter of relief is that India’s recovery rate is now 49.9 per cent. The recoveries (1,54,330) continue to be higher than active cases (1,45,779) of novel coronavirus.
On May 30, the Centre took an exit step from the 68-day nationwide lockdown, declaring that the restrictions will be limited only to containment zones up to June 30 and that the prohibited activities will be opened in a phased manner in areas outside these zones, allowing restaurants, malls, religious places and education sectors to open in a phased manner.
With lockdown 5.0, which is widely touted as Unlock 1.0, kicking in, the Coronavirus numbers in many states have rapidly started to spike, which has become a cause of concern for the Centre as well as the states. Already, Central teams are being deputed to provide technical support and handhold the state Health Departments and municipal health officials in reviewing steps being taken to tackle COVID-19 in six key metros — Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Bengaluru.
The lockdown, enforced on March 25, was originally supposed to end on April 14. It was then extended to May 3, and then again to May 17 and finally to May 31. The lockdown 5.0 will come to an end on June 30.