Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on the prevailing COVID-19 situation and vaccinations on Saturday, 27 November.
In the meeting, the PM was briefed about the global trends in COVID-19 infections and trends, as per a press release issued by his office.
He was also apprised of the new variant Omicron and its impact. The PM said that in light of the new threat, people need to more cautious and they need to take proper precautions like masking and social distancing.
Top government officials, including Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, and NITI Aayog member (health) Dr VK Paul were in attendance at the virtual meeting.
The meeting comes a day after the World Health Organization named the newly detected B.1.1.529 COVID-19 variant, first reported in South Africa, 'Omicron', and categorised it as a 'variant of concern'.
PM Modi Directs Monitoring of International Arrivals, With Special Focus on 'At Risk' Countries
PM further directed on the need for monitoring all international arrivals, their testing as per guidelines, with a specific focus on countries identified ‘at risk’. He also asked officials to review plans for easing of international travel restrictions in the light of emerging new evidence.
In the two-hour meeting vaccination and its national progress status was discussed, and the 'Har Ghar Dastak' campaign was also made available for the PM to review. Following this PM directed that the states need to be sensitised on the importance of ensuring that those who have taken first doses of the vaccine are inoculated with the second dose in a timely manner.
He also directed the officials to provide any and all technical support to the states reporting higher cases presently along with continuation of intensive containment and active surveillance in clusters reporting higher cases.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged PM Modi to halt flights from those countries where the new variant has been detected.
"I urge Hon’ble PM to stop flights from those countries which are affected by new variant. With great difficulty, our country has recovered from Corona. We shud do everything possible to prevent this new variant from entering India (sic)," Kejriwal tweeted.
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