Prime Minister Narendra Modi today spoke with four Chief Ministers in separate phone calls and discussed the coronavirus situation in their states, government sources said. He dialed Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jairam Thakur.
Maharashtra, the state hardest hit by the pandemic since last year, is among the states seeing a plateauing of fresh infections, the Union Health Minsirtry had said on Friday. The state logged 54,022 new cases in the last 24 hours. 898 Covid patients died in the same period.
The conversation between the Prime Minster and Mr Thakeray took place on a day when the latter wrote to the centre, seeking permission to develop a separate app for Covid vaccination in the state. He wrote the letter following complaints of frequent glitches in CoWIN registration platform.
Maharashtra is among the 10 states that account for close to 72 per cent of the new COVID-19 cases reported in a day, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
In tweets after the phone call, Madhya Pradesh's Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he updated PM Modi on the state's "continuously decreasing positivity rate and rapidly rising recovery rate". He also spoke with the Prime Minister about the state government's measures to combat the virus, including the Janata Curfew. Madhya Pradesh added another 11,708 Covid cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total tally to over 6.49 lakh.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the Madhya Pradesh government and assured all possible help from the central government," Mr Chouhan tweeted in Hindi.
Similarly, the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister said he updated the Prime Minister on what the state government is doing to provide oxygen to Covid patients, the status of hospital beds and the vaccination drive. The hill state reported 4,177 COVID-19 cases on Friday, pushing its total caseload to over 1.22 lakh. 56 Covid patients died in the last 24 hours.
PM Modi assued all possible help to the state in its battle against the virus, Mr Thakur said in a tweet in a Hindi tweet.
In the last three days, PM Modi has spoken with 10 Chief Ministers and two Lieutenant Governors to take stock of their states and union territories are dealing with the pandemic.
PM Modi's phone call with Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren this week drew sharp reactions after Soren's dig at the Prime Minister in a tweet. He had described PM Modi's phone call to him on the COVID-19 situation in the country as the PM's "Mann Ki Baat", instead of business.
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