PM in mann ki baat: ‘Covid storm has shaken nation; Govt, states doing their best’

With the surge in Covid-19 instances pushing healthcare infrastructure to its limits, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned in his month-to-month radio present, Mann ki Baat, that the “storm” has “shaken” the nation, and emphasised that each the Union and state governments had been doing their greatest.
The Prime Minister started the present by saying that the pandemic “is testing our patience; it is testing the limits of all of us at enduring misery. Many of our near and dear ones have left us untimely”.
With everybody over the age of 18 changing into eligible for vaccination beginning May 1, and amid questions being raised by state governments in regards to the differential pricing of the vaccines and the distribution plan, Modi appealed to the states to offer free vaccines to “maximum number of people”.
“After successfully confronting the first wave of corona, the country was full of enthusiasm, full of self-confidence, but this storm has shaken the country,” the Prime Minister mentioned, including that the Centre was “applying its entire might to give a fillip to the endeavours of state governments,” which too, had been “trying their best to fulfill their responsibilities”.
Urging folks to get vaccinated, he appealed to them to not get “swayed by any rumours about the vaccine”. He harassed that these older than 45 years can get “free vaccines” that the Centre despatched to state governments, and that beginning May 1, everybody over 18 will likely be eligible for vaccination.
“Now, the corporate sector, companies too will be able to participate in the programme of administering vaccines to their employees. I also want to say that the programme of free vaccine by the government of India that has been going on now will continue in the future too. I appeal also to the states to extend the benefit of this free vaccine campaign of government of India to the maximum number of people.”
Saying that he had held discussions with medical consultants and leaders of pharmaceutical, vaccine and oxygen manufacturing industries, the PM reiterated the federal government’s slogan of “Dawai bhi, kadai bhi” and requested folks to “get vaccinated and maintain all precautions”, assuring that the nation will “soon prevail together over this calamity.”
Saying that whereas many individuals are getting contaminated, “the number of people recovering from corona is equally high”, he mentioned.

Talking a few “new awareness” in villages and cities, Modi mentioned, “On the one hand, the country is working day and night for hospitals, ventilators and medicines, and on the other, our countrymen are fighting the challenge of corona with a lot of heart. This resolve gives us so much strength, so much confidence… The country is once again united and fighting against corona.”
A big a part of the radio present was spent speaking to docs and nurses, ambulance drivers and different frontline staff, in addition to a affected person who had lately recovered from Covid.

Many docs, he mentioned, had been taking on duty on their very own by offering counselling over telephone and WhatsApp, and urged folks that in case of any apprehension, they need to get in contact with docs and “get information only from the correct source”.
He additionally hailed the providers of the nursing workers, calling them “a great strength of our society” and a “big inspiration for all of us”.