Chairing a review meeting on India's Covid-19 situation on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed authorities to speed up the installation of approved medical oxygen plants in several states and union territories and utilise the entire national capacity to ramp up vaccine production.
On the issue of supply of medical oxygen, Modi was informed that officers were in constant touch with 12 high-burden states in assessing the current and future requirement of medical oxygen and that a supply mapping plan for 12 high-burden states till April 30 has also been undertaken.
Against the backdrop of several states and UTs flagging the falling number of hospital beds, Modi sought additional supply of beds through temporary hospitals and isolation centres and said that all necessary measures must be taken to ramp up the availability of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients.
The prime minister said that the country would fight the virus "with even greater speed and coordination."
"Reviewed preparedness to handle the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Aspects relating to medicines, oxygen, ventilators and vaccination were discussed. Like we did last year, we will successfully fight COVID with even greater speed and coordination," he tweeted after the meeting.
PM Modi was briefed by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to the PM, Union Home Secretary, Union Health Secretary, Pharma Secretary and Dr V K Paul of the Niti Aayog.
Reviewing the status of the supply of Remdesivir and other medicines, the Prime Minister spoke about the need to utilize the full potential of India’s pharmaceutical industry to meet the rising demand of various medicines.
Officials told him that through the efforts of the government, capacity and production augmentation for manufacturing of Remdesivir has been ramped up to provide around 74.10 lakh vials/month in May while the normal production output in January-February was just 27-29 lakh vials/month.
Modi took note of the ramped up production capacity and directed the officials to urgently resolve issues relating to real-time supply chain management to states in coordination with the states.
Read: States raise with Centre issues of increasing supply of oxygen cylinder, Remdesivir to hospitals
The Prime Minister said that the use of Remdesivir and other medicines must be in accordance with approved medical guidelines and that their misuse and black marketing must be strictly curbed. The Prime Minister also said that the supply of oxygen required for the production of medicines and equipment necessary to handle the pandemic should also be ensured.
The Prime Minister said that local administrations need to be proactive and sensitive to people’s concerns and close coordination with states must be ensured in handling the pandemic.
On the status of availability and supply of ventilators, the Prime Minister noted that a real-time monitoring system has been created, and directed the officials to sensitized the concerned state governments to use the system proactively.