Cooperation of both government and society is essential to prevent Covid infection: PM

New Delhi, 19 April (HS): The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reviewed the status of Covid-19 in Varanasi district through video conferencing. During the meeting, the Prime Minister took stock of testing, availability of beds, medicines, vaccines and manpower etc. for prevention of Corona and proper treatment of Corona infected patients. He directed the officers to provide all possible assistance to the public expeditiously.

During the discussion, the Prime Minister emphasized that everybody should follow the “distance of two yards and mask is essential”.  Stressing the importance of the vaccination campaign, the Prime Minister said that the administration should make everyone above the age of 45 aware of this.  He also asked the administration to extend all possible assistance to the people of Varanasi with utmost sensitivity.

PM Modi thanked all the doctors and medical staff of the country and said that even in this hour of crisis, they are doing their duty sincerely. He said that we have to learn from last year’s experiences and move forward cautiously.

Modi said that as a representative of Varanasi, he is also taking constant feedback from the general public. He said the expansion and modernization of medical infrastructure in Varanasi in the last 5-6 years has helped in fighting Corona. Simultaneously, the availability of beds, ICU and oxygen in Varanasi is being augmented. The Prime Minister also emphasized the need to increase efforts at all levels in view of the stress due to the increased number of patients. He said that the Varanasi administration should step up the pace of work in all the fields in the same way it has rapidly set up the ‘Kashi Covid Response Centre’.

He emphasized on “Test, Track and Treat” and said that like the first wave, the same strategy has to be adopted to win over viruses. He also emphasized on providing contract tracing and test reports of infected persons at the earliest. He also directed the administration to discharge all responsibilities towards the patients and their families living in home isolation in a sensitive manner.

The Prime Minister praised the voluntary organisations of Varanasi for working closely with the Government and said they should be further encouraged. He again emphasized on greater vigilance and caution in view of the situation.

The public representatives and officials of Varanasi region informed the Prime Minister about the preparations for prevention and treatment of Covid, through video conferencing.  In this regard, the Prime Minister was briefed on the issues of control rooms set up for contact tracing, command and control centres set up for home isolation, dedicated phone line ambulances, provision of telemedicine from control rooms, deployment of additional rapid response teams in urban areas etc. The Prime Minister was informed that so far 19,8,383 persons have received the first dose and 35,014 persons have received both the doses of vaccination to prevent Covid.

During this video conferencing, M.L.C and Covid in-charge of Varanasi A.K. Sharma, zonal head Deepak Agarwal, Police Commissioner A. Satish Ganesh, district collector Kaushal Raj Sharma, Municipal Commissioner Gaurang Rathi and others were also present.