Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again appealed to people to not flock tourist destinations in wake of a slowing second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and said that “we should prevent the third wave from happening”.
“The thoughts should not be ‘when will the third wave hit?’, or ‘let us go and enjoy a bit before the pandemic picks up again’. We should all be thoughtful of the situation and prevent the third wave from happening. The crowding of tourist places in hill stations that I am seeing currently is a matter of concern. We should not let our guard down this way,” Prime Minister Modi said.
He said that the visuals of people travelling without face masks at hill stations and crowding market places is not an acceptable behaviour as the “virus is very smart and mutates quickly”.
“The number of Covid-19 cases is rising. We need to take strict action to curb the situation at the micro level. We need to keep an eye on Covid variants. Experts are studying them. We need to encourage people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour,” PM Modi said in New Delhi.
The Prime Minister made the statements after virtually meeting the Chief Ministers of all northeastern states to review the Covid-19 situation in the region at a time when the second wave of the pandemic continues to rage across the country.
He reiterated the importance of the ‘3-T formula’ in order to defeat the Covid-19 virus, and said that the only way to defeat the virus is the ‘Test-Track-Treat’ method which India has been doing since last year.
“They gave an account of improvement in medical infrastructure to better tackle Covid-19 cases and support lent through PM Cares Fund. They gave assurance of taking timely action to bring down positivity rate as well as the number of cases in their states,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who was also part of the crucial meeting, talked about the reduction in the overall daily number of cases, but forewarned that this should not lead to one becoming lax and letting one’s guard down. He said that some areas of the country are witnessing high positivity rates.
“He emphasised on the importance of testing, tracing, tracking and vaccination. The Union Health Secretary gave an overview of the Covid-19 cases in the country and discussed the high positivity rate in some North-East states. He also briefed about the steps taken to the boost supply of medical oxygen and the progress of vaccination,” the PMO statement said.
The meeting was attended by CMs of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
The interaction was decided in wake of a spike in Covid-19 cases in the north east despite a drop in fresh cases across India.
Assam on Monday recorded 2,575 new cases and 37 fatalities, taking the state’s caseload to 5,36,238, the National Health Mission bulletin said. The death toll thereby lose to 4,865, while the active caseload is 19,594.
Meghalaya logged 273 more cases yesterday, taking the state’s infection tally to 54,853. Three patients succumbed to the virus in East Khasi Hills, and one each in South Garo Hills and West Garo Hills, respectively, pushing the state’s death toll to 913.
As many as 254 people tested positive for the infection in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday, spiking the total cases in the state to 39,817. One more fatality pushed the death toll to 189.
PM Modi will interact with Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra and Kerala via video conferencing at 11 am on July 16 to discuss the Covid-19 situation in these states
