Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with the Chief Ministers of all States and Union territories on the 16th and 17th of June at 3 P.M. He will interact with them through video conferencing.

On 16th June, the Prime Minister will interact with 21 States and Union Territories - Punjab, Assam, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Himachal, Chandigarh, Goa, Manipur, Nagaland, Ladakh, Puducherry, Arunachal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu, Sikkim and Lakshadweep.

Mr. Modi will interact with 15 States and Union Territories- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu And Kashmir, Telangana and Odisha on the following day.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of the rising number of Corona virus cases in the country. This will be the sixth meeting of the Prime Minister with the Chief Ministers since the announcement of nationwide lockdown in March. Currently, the country is under the fifth phase of the lockdown which entails much more relaxations than the previous ones. Under Unlock 1.0, the Centre and State Governments have eased several restrictions for the convenience of public and businesses to ensure that economic activities gather momentum.

Cabinet Secretary yesterday held a meeting with Chief Secretaries of all the states and advised them to focus on containment, testing and tracing, health infrastructure up-gradation, and community engagement for effective management of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the recovery rate of COVID positive cases continues to increase and is currently at 49.47 percent. A total of one lakh 47 thousand 194 individuals have been cured. While 1,41,842 individuals are under active medical supervision. In the last 24 hours, over six thousand individuals have recovered from COVID-19. The doubling rate continues to improve and has increased from 3.4 days at the beginning of lockdown to 17.4 days currently.

Cabinet Secretary today held a video conference with Chief Secretaries, Secretary Health, and Secretary Urban Development of all the states. Union Health Ministry said States were advised to focus on containment, testing and tracing, health infrastructure up-gradation, case clinical management, and community engagement for effective management of COVID-19.

States were also asked to also pay special attention to the emerging epicentres and undertake stringent containment measures to check the spread of the virus.

States were advised that active house-to-house surveillance through Special Teams in containment zones is critical for early identification of cases. It was emphasized that going forward preventive measures are extremely important especially for a vulnerable population, elderly and co-morbid patients. The Ministry said States were requested to undertake extensive community outreach to encourage social distancing and promotion of Covid appropriate behaviour in the community at all times.