The world has also accepted the night curfew, PM Modi said.
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed on the need for creating micro-containment zones and extensive testing as a means to combat the second wave of Coronavirus, which pushed up the daily surge figures to 1.26 lakh in 24 hours. The state governments, he said, should not cut corners when it comes to this, he said.
“Our emphasis should be on micro-containment zone, we have to keep the maximum focus on it,” he said at a meeting of Chief Ministers called this evening to review the Covid situation in the country. This morning, the country logged its highest ever 24-hour surge figure of 1.26 lakh.
“The world has also accepted the night curfew. Curfew makes people remember that they are living in the age of Corona. It is good that we promote Night Curfew as ‘Corona Curfew’. This will not affect work too much,” the Prime Minister said.
Setting a target of 70 per cent RT-PCR tests for the states, PM Modi said this is the only way to identify and fight the virus.
“Proactive testing is very important… Now more cases are asymptomatic. People feel that they have some mild pulmonary disease and then they infect the whole family,” he said, adding, “Testing and tracing is the most important thing right now and we have to bring the positivity rate below 5 per cent”.
Asserting that the country now has much more resources to battle the virus, PM Modi also called upon the country to observe a “vaccine festival” between April 11 and 14 to inoculate the maximum number of eligible beneficiaries.
PM Modi had last reviewed the Covid situation on Sunday, during which he had decided to send Central teams to Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh — three states where the infection was spreading fast.