If COVID is defeated in 10 states, the country will win the fight: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (August 11) held a meeting through video conferencing with Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, to discuss the COVID-19 situation in these 10 states, which have the maximum number of cases.

Modi told the chief ministers that there was a need to increase testing in states that have a low testing rate and a high positivity rate — particularly, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Telangana. “If we defeat coronavirus in these 10 states, then the country will also win,” ANI quoted the prime minister as saying.

“Today 80 per cent of active cases are in these ten states. Hence, the role of all these states is very big in the fight against coronavirus. The number of active cases has exceeded 6 lakhs. Most of these cases are in these 10 states,” said Modi, adding that the meeting was convened to review and discuss the issue.

Modi added that experts were saying if a person was diagnosed within 72 hours, then the spread could be controlled to a great extent. “So, it is important that all the people who come in contact with an infected person to get tested within 72 hours,” Modi said.

Speaking at the meeting, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said the state had exhausted the State Disaster Response & Mitigation Fund and sought an ad-hoc grant of ₹1,000 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund to fight the pandemic and the pending CMR subsidy of ₹1,321 crore to facilitate paddy procurement.