New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting of top officials at 4.30 pm to review the Covid situation in the country, government sources said. The meeting comes amid a frightening surge in daily new cases; this morning nearly 1.6 lakh were reported in the previous 24 hours – a massive spike from the 27,553 7 days ago. PM Modi last held a Covid meeting on December 24th, at which he urged officials to stay ‘satark’ (alert) and ‘saavdhaan’ (vigilant’) as India scrambles to contain the third wave of infections.
“In view of the new variant, we should be ‘satark’ and ‘saavdhan’. The fight against the pandemic is not over and the need for continued adherence to COVID safe behaviour is of paramount importance even today,” the PM had said. Since then, India’s active cases have gone from less than 80,000 to nearly 6 lakh, with a worrying number of doctors and healthcare workers – the first line of defence against the virus – testing positive, including hundreds in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
Rising Covid cases also come as five states including Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and where medical infrastructure is patchy prepare to hold elections 30 days from today. UP, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, and Uttarakhand will hold polls over seven phases starting February 10th, the Election Commission announced yesterday. The top poll body had been urged by the Allahabad High Court to postpone elections in view of the Covid emergency. However, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said polls would be held as scheduled.