New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed the officials for maintaining a high level of vigil and alertness at all levels. He directed the Centre to work in close coordination with the States to support their efforts of public health measures of containment and management under the ‘Whole of Government’ approach. 

In the high-level meeting attended by Cabinet Secretary, Dr. V.K.Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, health ministry officials, PM Modi directed the officials to be Satark (alert) and Saavdhan (careful) in view of the new variant.

The strategy of the Centre for the proactive, focussed, collaborative and cooperative fight against the pandemic should guide all our future actions, the PM directed the officials.

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The fight against the pandemic is not over, he said, and the need for continued adherence to COVID safe behaviour is of paramount importance even today.

Also, PM asked the officials to ensure that the health systems in the states, beginning from the district level, are strengthened to meet any challenge posed by the new variant. It is important for States to ensure that the Oxygen supply equipments are installed and fully functional, he instructed the officials. 

He directed the officials to work with the states regularly and review the status of preparedness of various components of health infrastructure including training and capacity building of human resources, timely availability of ambulances, the readiness of states to operationalise COVID facilities for institutional quarantining, and effective and supervised monitoring of those in home isolation. He also directed officials for the effective use of IT tools for telemedicine and teleconsultation.