New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans common lockdown exit

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with Chief Ministers of States via video conferencing to discuss measures to combat COVID-19 to rightly emphasise on staggered exit from the 21-day lockdown and not immediately open the flood gates for the population to throng the streets.

He indicated to the States that normality could not be restored all at once and if any, it had to be a graded response to the exigencies. "What is important is a common exit strategy. Brainstorm them and come out with suggestions," he said to the Chief Ministers.

Initiating this step in the right direction, Modi sought Chief Ministers' response based on the ground realities and assessment of the virus threat perception. He thanked the States for supporting the decision of lockdown due to which India had achieved some success in limiting the spread of COVID-19.

He complimented the States for working together as a team to check the spread of the virus. He, however, forewarned that the global situation remained far from satisfactory and sounded a possible second wave of spread of the virus in some countries.

The Prime Minister outlined the common goal for the country as to ensure minimum loss of life.

In the next few weeks, testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine should remain the areas of focus. He highlighted the necessity of maintaining supply of essential medical products, availability of raw material for manufacture of medicines and medical equipment. He said it was necessary to ensure availability of separate, dedicated hospital facilities for COVID-19 patients. To increase the availability of doctors, he asked the States to tap into the resource pool of AYUSH doctors, organise online training and utilise para-medical staff, NCC and NSS volunteers.

Underscoring the importance of coordinated action and the need to avoid overlaps in efforts of stakeholders, Modi talked about the need of setting up of Crisis Management Groups at district level and appointment of District Surveillance Officers. He said that data must be taken from the accredited labs for testing - this would ensure congruence in data of district, state and Centre. He said it was necessary to ensure staggered release of funds to the beneficiaries under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana to avoid crowding at banks.

Raising the issue of harvest, the Prime Minister said though relaxation was given for this, it was necessary to continuously monitor and maintain social distancing as much as possible. He asked the States to think of other platforms for procuring grains apart from APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee), and explore the possibility of creating pooling platforms for rural areas, like that in ride sharing apps, which can be used for this purpose.

The Chief Ministers thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership, continuous guidance and support in this time of crisis. They appreciated the Prime Minister for taking the bold and timely decision of lockdown which had helped check the spread of the virus in the country.

They mentioned their efforts of maintaining social distancing, tracking suspect cases, identifying and quarantining suspect cases arising from Nizamuddin Markaz, containing community transmission, boosting up of medical infrastructure, strengthening medical workforce, provision of tele-medicine, provision of mental health counselling, distribution of food and other essentials to those in need and taking care of migrant workers. The States spoke about the importance of mobilising resources, financial as well as medical, to mitigate the crisis.

He appealed to the leaders to reach out to community leaders and social welfare organisations at State, district, town and block levels to build up a united front based on community-approach in the battle against the pandemic.