Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the nation on Covid situation. (Source: YouTube/Narendra Modi)With India grappling with the second wave of Covid-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday emphasised that lockdown should be the last resort and urged the state governments to focus more on micro-containment zones. His address to the nation came on a day the country reported a record 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said states must allay the concerns of migrant workers by assuring them of their jobs. He also asked the states to inform the migrants that they will be vaccinated in the next few days. His address to the nation came just hours after the Prime Minister held a meeting with vaccine manufacturers via video conference and asked them to scale up production capacity to vaccinate all citizens in the shortest possible time.
With Covid cases spreading at an alarming rate, the Prime Minister has been chairing a flurry of meetings with various stakeholders in order to tackle the situation. On Monday, he met the country’s leading doctors and top pharma companies to discuss the situation. Shortly after that, the Centre announced all adults will be eligible for vaccines from May 1.
PM Modi focuses on micro-containment zones and says that people should consider lockdown as the last resort to contain the virus.
PM Modi urged citizens, especially the youths, to come forward to help the needy. He also urged them to form small committees in their areas and create awareness about Covid protocols, so that there will be no need to impose lockdown or designate containment zones.
"I urge state and city administrations to convince the migrants to stay back so that they can be vaccinated there. Assure them that their livelihood will also not be stripped off," says PM Modi.
"We gain confidence from the fact that our healthcare workers, frontline workers and a large part of our senior citizens have already been vaccinated," PM Modi says.
"India has made the cheapest vaccine," says PM Modi
"The pharma sector has ramped up the production of medicine. We are working towards increasing the beds and building more hospitals," says PM Modi.
"We should not lose out patience even at hardest of times. Country is working day and night following this motto," PM Modi says while he addresses the nation on Tuesday.