PM Modi Urges Quick Steps To Prevent ‘Second Peak’ Of COVID-19

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned the country to be careful of a possible “second peak” of the deadly coronavirus.

Expressing concern over the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in some states, Modi urged people not to be careless and seriously follow the ‘Test, Track and Treat’ formula.

Modi, who met chief ministers of different states virtually on Wednesday, observed that failure to check the rising trend of coronavirus cases could lead to a national outbreak, so the need of the hour is quick and decisive steps.

“The number of cases is increasing in some states. This increase is more than 150 per cent in 70 districts of the country. We must stop this emerging second peak of Corona immediately,” Modi said.

“The position we have reached in the fight against corona, the confidence we have now, should not give way to carelessness,” he added.

Modo stressed on the need to scale up RT-PCR tests. “We need to be as serious about ‘Test, Track and Treat’ as we have been doing for the last one year. Contacts of every infected person have to be tracked as soon as possible and RT-PCR test rate has to be kept higher than 70 per cent,” he said.

“In several states, rapid antigen testing is being stressed upon which needs transformation. Every state in the country needs to stress more on RT-PCR test,” he added.

Among notable absentees at the virtual meeting were West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel.