Covid-19: PM Modi likely to hold next review meet with chief ministers on Wednesday

As the coronavirus cases continue to spike up in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to have another round of review meetings with the state chief ministers. PTI reports that the Prime Minister is likely to chair the next review meeting with the chief ministers of seven states on Wednesday (September 23). Among the chief ministers who are expected to participate in the meeting are Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, the news agency reported citing sources.

Maharashtra is the worst hit state with infection cases now nearing 12 lakh. The state has close to 3 lakh active cases while over 32,000 have lost their lives due to pandemic. Uttar Pradesh is the fifth worst-affected state with 3.5 lakh cases and 4953 deaths. Delhi, which had controlled the pandemic briefly, is again witnessing a rise in the number of infections in the past few days. Among the five states that have been hit hard by the pandemic are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.

The Prime Minister had held his last review meet on August 11. In that meeting, PM Modi had interacted with chief ministers and representatives of 10 most-affected states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab, Gujarat, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

Globally, India is the second worst-hit nation by pandemic. However, it has surpassed the United States in terms of recoveries. So far, India has recorded over 43 lakh recoveries while the US has only over 42 lakh. The number of active cases has now gone over 10 lakh in India.