Sonia holds meeting with CMs of Cong-ruled states to review Covid situation

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday held a meeting via video conference with chief ministers and ministers of the party-ruled states to review the COVID-19 situation.

During the meeting, she discussed the efforts to fight COVID-19 including the availability of vaccines, access to medicines and ventilators.

"Congress President, Sonia Gandhi addresses a meeting of the Congress-ruled States and Congress Ministers from our alliance States to review the efforts to fight COVID-19 including the availability of vaccines, access to medicines and ventilators. Priority is test, track and vaccinate," informed Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

The meeting comes a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to open up the country's vaccination program to everyone who needs it.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 tally hit a record daily high since the outbreak of the pandemic with over 1.45 lakh new infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, taking the cumulative count to 1,32,05,926, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The single-day rise in coronavirus cases breached the 1 lakh mark for the fourth consecutive day.

According to the ministry, the country recorded 1,45,384 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

As many as 9,80,75,160 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country.

From April 2, the government started vaccinating all people above 45 years. India started its vaccination drive on January 16 with priority given to all healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase. The second phase started on March 1 where doses were administered to people above the age of 60 and those between 45 and 59 years with specific comorbidities.