Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a meeting with top officials of the government to review the Covid-19 situation in the country. At the meet, he was given an overview of oxygen availability, medicines, health infrastructure, and other pertinent issues by three empowered groups of officials.

With the Covid-19 cases rising at a rapid pace in the country, PM Modi has been chairing regular meetings to review the situation. He had also addressed the nation on Tuesday. He has met chief ministers of high-burden states multiple times. He has also chaired meetings with top bureaucrats, leading oxygen suppliers, and top doctors of the country, in the last two weeks as India battles the worst ever Covid-19 wave. Last week, he cancelled all his poll-related campaigns as cases skyrocketed.

The empowered group working on boosting oxygen supply briefed the prime minister on the efforts being made to ramp up the availability and supply of oxygen in the country. They informed the PM about increasing the allocation of oxygen to states. It was discussed that the production of Liquid Medical Oxygen in the country has increased from 5,700 MT/day in August, 2020 to 8,922 MT today. The domestic production of LMO is expected to cross 9250 MT/day by the end of April 2021, they said.

The PM instructed officials to work closely with state governments to start the PSA Oxygen plants at the earliest. Officers also apprised the PM that they are encouraging states to also set up their own PSA oxygen plants.

Modi was also briefed about the functioning of the Oxygen Express Railways Service as well as the domestic sorties and international sorties undertaken by the IAF to transport oxygen tankers.

The empowered group working on Medical Infrastructure and Covid management briefed the PM on efforts being undertaken to ramp up the availability of beds and ICUs. They informed the PM that efforts are being taken to break the chain of transmission. Modi stressed the need to ensure that specific guidelines and strategies regarding Covid-19 management need to be implemented properly by the relevant agencies in the states.

The empowered group working on communication apprised the PM of the efforts being undertaken to improve awareness among people on Covid-related behaviour.

Cabinet Secretary, Home Secretary, Secretary RT&H, Secretary I&B, Secretary Pharmaceuticals, Member NITI Aayog, DG ICMR, Secretary Biotechnology & other senior officers were present at the meeting.

On Sunday,  in his monthly Mann Ki Baat broadcast, Modi spoke to doctors, nurses and frontline workers, who shared their experience and views on the disease and expressed confidence that people will soon come out of this crisis. The over 30-minute broadcast was entirely focussed on the pandemic, which has been rampaging across the country for weeks