PM Modi to interact with CMs of NE States on July 13; to review COVID-19 situation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be interacting with the chief ministers of the Northeastern states of the country over the situation of COVID-19 through video conferencing. Chief Ministers of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram are said to join the prime minister in a virtual interaction at 11 AM on Tuesday, July 13.

This comes in the backdrop of an increase in COVID-19 cases in the northeastern region despite the country has considerably tamed the devastating second wave of COVID-19.

Earlier in the month, the Government of India had deputed multidisciplinary teams to six states due to the continued surge in COVID-19 infections. Among them were three states from North East, i.e.  Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Manipur, while other states being Kerala, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. It was said that the Central teams were being sent to support the States in their efforts for targeted COVID-19 response and management and also to resolve bottlenecks if any to effectively tackle the pandemic.

A week back, Central Government had raised concern over the COVID-19 situation in the Northeast. It revealed that the Northeastern states of India accounted for over 62% (48 districts) of the 77 high positivity districts in the country. The Northeastern region is now at the focus of the central government's attempts to tackle the spread of virus further and the ongoing situation. Apart from the Northeastern states, even Kerala and Maharashtra have emerged as regions of concern despite the nationwide tally of new cases remaining low. 

COVID-19 tally

India recorded 37,154 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, July 12, bringing the country's active caseload to 4.50 lakh, according to the Union Health Ministry. Although the pandemic is far from over, this single-day rise is the country's lowest single-day increase in over four months. As many as 724 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, new recoveries at 39,649 in the same period, as per July 12 update.

Despite the fact that India's total caseload has increased to 3.08 crore, the Health Ministry reported that the country's recovery rate has risen to 97.22%, the highest in the world, with over 3 crore COVID-19 patients recovering.

There are 4,50,899 active cases in the country of which Maharashtra has the highest number of active cases at 1,19,442 followed by Kerala at 1,15,327 and Karnataka at 36,760 while Tamil Nadu has 32,307.

India began its immunisation programme on January 16 this year and has so far administered over 37 crore doses. Under the nationwide immunisation effort, 37,73,52,501 vaccine doses have been administered to date, including 12,35,287 in the last 24 hours.