Subramanian Swamy urges PM Modi to make Nitin Gadkari in-charge of India's COVID-19 battle

Even as India continued to record a consistent rise in the number of COVID cases & fatalities amid the second wave of the pandemic, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy threw his weight behind Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to assume charge of India's COVID-19 battle. Dr Swamy, on Wednesday, took to Twitter to point out that India could possibly face the third wave of COVID that could target children unless strict precautions were taken immediately, something experts have raised in the last two days. Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy urged PM Modi to delegate the conduct of the war against COVID to Minister for roads, transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari citing that he possessed expertise in the infrastructure framework which was required in the fight against the pandemic. 

Subramanian Swamy urged PM Modi to not rely just on PMO in the battle against COVID and pointed out that the latter was 'a department not the Prime Minister himself'. He further alleged that there was 'too much centralization' in the PMO and claimed that India would survive Coronavirus as it did Islamic invaders and British Imperialists. Nitin Gadkari's expertise has been suggested at a time when India is struggling to reach key COVID-19 essentials, including medical Oxygen, Vaccinations, Remdesivir, foreign aid to the places that require them.

PM Modi chairs key COVID review meeting

With India reporting over 4-lakh cases in the last 24 hours, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a meeting with the top dignitaries, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to comprehensively review the grim situation caused by the second wave of COVID-19. Based on the review, ways to ramp up the healthcare infrastructure were also discussed. In the meeting, PM Modi was briefed about the surge in COVID-19 cases in the whole of India, including the 12 states which have more than 1 lakh active cases each. He was also made aware of an advisory being sent to the states to identify districts of concern where case positivity is 10% or more and bed occupancy is more than 60% on either oxygen-supported or ICU beds. PM directed that states should be given help and guidance about leading indicators to ramp up healthcare infrastructure, and pointed out the need to ensure quick and holistic containment measures. 

He also took the opportunity to review the progress on vaccination and chalk out the roadmap for scaling up production on vaccines in the next few months. On being informed that around 17.7 crore vaccines have been supplied to the states, PM Modi went on to review the state-wise trend on vaccine wastage. He was also briefed that around 31% of the eligible population over the age of 45 has been given at least one dose, on which, he said, "Citizens should be facilitated for vaccination despite lockdowns and healthcare workers involved in vaccination must not be diverted for other duties."

India's COVID battle

New coronavirus cases and deaths in India hit a record daily high with 4,12,262 new infections and 3,980 fatalities being reported, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to2,10,77,410and the death toll to2,30,168, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to35,66,398 comprising 16.92per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has dropped to 81.99 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,72,80,844, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09%, the data stated.   

India's COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7,30 lakh onAugust 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28,70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India crossed the grim milestone of 2 crores on May 4.  According to the ICMR, 29,67,75,209 samples have been tested up to May 5 with 19,23,131samples being tested on Wednesday.