In a bid to tackle the massive surge in the number of COVID cases in states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with district magistrates of 100 districts with high caseloads of COVID-19 infections in two meetings on May 18 and 20, government sources said on Thursday.

 While DMs of 46 districts from nine states will be part of the first meeting, those from 54 districts from 10 states will attend the second meeting.  It is further said that respective chief ministers will be present in these interactions. This will be the first such interaction that the prime minister will have with top district-level administrative officers on the COVID-19 situation.

So far, he has held a number of meetings with chief ministers from across the country and also, in some cases, from high caseload states on the pandemic situation since its first outbreak in 2020.

According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, just ten states account for over 72 percent of new COVID-19 cases reported in a span of 24 hours and these include Maharashtra, Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan.

Also, just ten states account for 74.30 percent of the new deaths. India added 3,62,727 new coronavirus infections in a day taking the COVID-19 tally of cases to 2,37,03,665, while the death toll rose to 2,58,317 with 4,120 daily fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

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