The Centre is in no mood to bring back the spectre of lockdowd on the nation despite the surge in the Covid-19 cases. Asserting that there was no need for lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged Chief Ministers to concentrate on “testing, tracking, treating and more vaccination” and suggested to conduct a vaccination festival ‘tika utsav’ between April 11 to April 14.
Modi asked the Chief Ministers strengthen their efforts for the next 2-3 weeks to check the spread of the virus on a "war-footing". He also said that States must focus on micro-containment zones and not on lockdown methods.
“I propose from 11th april till 14th april, we should make TIKA UTSAV. Aim for 100% vaccination of people above 45 years. April 11 is Jyotiba Phule ji's birth anniversary and April 14 is Baba Saheb's birth anniversary, in the meantime let us all celebrate 'Tika Utsav'. Our target should be to test at least 30 contacts in 72 hours per covid positive patient. The borders of containment zones should be particular and not vague. I want to appeal to all the CMs to go for pro active testing so that we can track asymptomatic patients.
"We need to focus on testing first, We need to be changed and not to take casually by following covid protocols. We should not take need of testing lightly. Earlier we did not have the infrastructure to deal with the pandemic and we had to use lockdown as a tool...but today we do not need a lockdown. Instead of calling it a night curfew we should call it "Corona Curfew",” said Modi.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in the meeting demanded more supply of vaccines and approval from Centre for vaccine production facility in the state to meet the growing demands. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not attend the meeting. Union Home inister Amit Shah was also present in the meeting.
The Prime Minister said that in many States administration was appearing lax. "There is a need to improve the governance system. I understandthat because of the one-year battle, the system can experience tirednessand there can be laxity, but we must tighten it for 2-3 weeks and strengthen the governance," he said.
Modi emphasised on 'Test, Track, Treat', Covid-appropriate behavior and Covid management to contain the pandemic. Along with public participation, our hard-working doctors and health-carestaff have helped a lot in handling the situation and are still doingit, he said. "With administration appearing lax in many states, rise in cases has increased problems. To stop the spread of the virus, there is a need to work on a war-footing," he said.