Published 22:44 IST, July 24th 2020
PM Modi likely to convene meeting with all State CMs on July 27 as Unlock 2 deadline nears
As Unlock 2.0 comes to an end on July 30, sources report that PM Modi is likely to convene a meeting with all state Chief Ministers to discuss COVID scenario
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As Unlock 2.0 comes to an end on July 30, sources report that PM Modi is likely to convene a meeting with all state Chief Ministers to discuss the nation's Coronavirus (COVID-19) scenario. The meeting is likely yo be held on July 27, report sources with Home Minister Amit Shah and Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla likely to attend the meeting. Currently, India has 12,87,945 cases of which 4,10,135 active cases and 30,601 fatalities.
Previous PM-CM meets
Earlier on June 16-17, the Prime Minister interacted with the state CMs on two different days in order to review the situation a week after the first reopening phase - 'Unlock 1'. After the meeting, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order that lockdown on containment zones will continue till July 31. The guidelines of 'Unlock 2' prohibits the opening of educational institutions, international air travel, metro rail, cinema halls, bars, auditoriums, swimming pools, gymnasiums, and large congregations and shortened the night curfew timing from 10 PM to 5 AM.
PM Modi has held six conferences with all CMs amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Previous meetings had all been to discuss the nation's strategy to battle COVID-19 and had resulted in nation-wide lockdowns - the last one with considerable relaxations. While all CMs had attended the first one, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has sent a representative for the past two meetings. Most CMs had aired their greivances and have supported the Centre's move to extend lockdown.
India's COVID scenario
While India's current lockdown is limited upto containment zones appealing to reopen India to boost the economy, several states have imposed varying degrees of lockdown in cities with a higher number of cases - Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram to name a few. International flights have been banned till August, while limited domestic flight movement has been extended by three more months. With a recovery rate of 63.45 per cent, India's case fatality rate has further declined to 2.38 per cent.
India also saw a record single-day spike of 49,310 cases while the death-toll mounted to 30,601 with 740 new fatalities. A cumulative total of 1,54,28,170 samples have been tested for COVID-19 up to July 23, with 3,52,801 samples tested on Thursday. India conducts 11179.83 tests per million (TPM) and has 897 labs in the government sector and 393 private labs. Moreover, two indigenous vaccines - COVAXIN (ICMR-NIC with Bharat Biotech) and ZyCov-D (Zydus Cadilla) are undergoing phase-1 and 2 human trials after being fast-tracked by ICMR.
22:20 IST, July 24th 2020