Dikhyaa Mohanty 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the country over the prevailing coronavirus disease crisis and stated that Covid-19 is the biggest epidemic to struck in the last century.
He said “New health infrastructure has been developed in the 1.5 years with Covid hospitals, ventilators beds, to preparing a network of testing labs. During the 2nd wave in April-May, demand for medical oxygen increased at an unprecedented rate.”
PM Modi announced the central government will provide free vaccine doses for all citizens above the age of 18 after June 21 adding state governments will not have to spend money on procuring them.
He also said free food grains will be available in fixed quantity every month for over 800 million citizens till Diwali. PM Modi has been holding review meetings with state governments and central government officials regarding the vaccination drive, testing, supply of oxygen etc.
PM Modi further added “Today, the central government has decided that the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana will be extended till Diwali. During this time of crisis, the government is with the poor. Free food grains will be available in fixed quantity every month for over 800 million citizens till November.”
He further announcedthat the central government will provide free vaccine doses for all citizens above the age of 18 after June 21 adding state governments will not have to spend money on procuring them. “Crores of people in India have been vaccinated free of cost. And from now, citizens above the age of 18 will also be inoculated for free. Seven companies in the country are producing different vaccines, 3 vaccine trials at an advanced stage,” PM Modi said.
He also said that if one looks at India’s history of the last 50 to 60 years, it would take decades to procure decades from abroad. Vaccine work used to be completed abroad, even then vaccination work could not start in our country, Modi said adding that the vaccination coverage in the country expanded from 60% to 90% in the past five years.
According to the Union health ministry’s dashboard, India continued to see a decline in its daily Covid disease tally for a third consecutive day as 100,636 new infections in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload to 28,909,975.
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