He also urged people to wear masks and wash their hands regularly to ensure that their enjoyment is not affected adversely by the virus.

“We are seeing that COVID cases are rising in many countries in the world. We need to remain vigilant and wear masks and wash our hands regularly,” he said in his last broadcast of the year.

This was the 96th edition of Prime Minister Modi’s monthly radio programme.

Govt sounds alert amid global COVID spike

Amid a sudden rise in COVID-19 cases in China and several other countries across the world, the Central government has stepped up measures to avert a possible spread of the virus and also warned all states and Union territories against lowering their guard.

Prime Minister Modi on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to assess the COVID-19 situation in the country, the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, the status of the vaccination campaign in the country and the emergence of new COVID variants and their public health implications for the country.

In the meeting, Prime Minister Modi cautioned against complacency and advised strict vigil. He reiterated that COVID is not over yet and directed officials to strengthen the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at the international airports.

He also stressed the need to ensure that the entire COVID infrastructure at all levels is maintained at a high level of preparedness in terms of equipment, processes and human resources. The Prime Minister directed officials to ramp up testing and also genomic sequencing efforts.

The Centre recently urged all states and UTs to ramp up the whole genome sequencing of positive samples of COVID to keep track of emerging variants.