Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday reviewed the COVID-19 situation in Varanasi district of Uttar Pradesh through video conferencing, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
According to a statement issued by the PMO, during the meeting, the Prime Minister was apprised about testing, the availability of beds, medicines, vaccines, and manpower, etc. for the prevention of coronavirus and proper treatment of infected patients.
Speaking to local officials and people’s representatives, the prime minister asked the administration to ensure that preventive measures like social distancing and the use of masks are practised.
“The prime minister underlined the importance of the vaccination exercise and asked the administration to raise awareness among everyone over 45 years about it,” the statement said.
As the member of Parliament from Varanasi, he has also been taking regular feedback from people, Modi said, adding that expansion and modernisation of medical infrastructure in the city have helped in fighting the pandemic.
The availability of beds, ICU and oxygen facility is being increased, he said.
Noting that the administration has set up the ‘Kashi COVID Response Centre’, the Prime Minister said other steps should also be carried out swiftly.
He was also informed about the mechanism put in by the administration, including a control room for contact tracing, a command and control centre for home isolation and a dedicated phone line for ambulance service.
Also, telemedicine was being made available through a control room to deal with the rising COVID-19 cases.
As per the PMO’s statement, the Prime Minister was informed that so far 1,98,383 persons have been given the first dose and 35,014 persons have been given both doses of vaccination for protection from COVID.
MLC and Varanasi COVID in-charge AK Sharma, Divisional Commissioner Deepak Agarwal, Commissioner of Police A. Satish Ganesh, District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma, Municipal Commissioner Gaurang Rathi, Chief Medical Officer N. P. Singh, Director I. S. S. B. H. U. BR Mittal, Ministers of State Neelkanth Tiwari and Ravindra Jaiswal, Rohaniyan MLA Surendra Narayan Singh and MLCs Ashok Dhawan and Laxman Acharya were also present dUring the meeting held through video conferencing.
The holy city first elected PM Modi as its Member of Parliament (MP) in 2014, in his very first parliamentary elections. Five years later, Varanasi re-elected him as its representative.
