Coronavirus Crisis: Health Minister To Chair GoM Today

New Delhi: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will chair a high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting to be held in the national capital on Saturday. The GoM is likely to be briefed about the management of the COVID-19 crisis in the country, the latest status in various states, as also response to the pandemic. The GoM is likely to review containment strategies in various parts of the country and other responses to check the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

The GoM is also likely to be apprised on the developments related to tasks specifically assigned to the 11 Empowered Groups and the healthcare infrastructure across the states.

Among those who constitute a part of the GoM are Minister for External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar, Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Union Minister of State for Home and the Minister of State for Health, among others. The Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat is also a member of the GoM.

The high-level meeting comes even as Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi sharpened his attack on the Modi government with regard to its response to the coronavirus crisis in the country. With India breaching the five lakh mark and recording the highest single-day spike of over 18,000 fresh cases of COVID-19, Rahul Gandhi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his silence.

Rahul Gandhi remarked that Prime Minister Modi had surrendered and is refusing to fight the COVID-19 pandemic which is spreading rapidly into new parts of the country. The Congress leader slammed the Modi government saying it had no plan to defeat the pandemic.