As the country entered its 11th day of lockdown and with a sudden spike in positive cases of corona in Andhra Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday called up Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to take stock of the situation in the state.
The Prime Minister enquired about the measures being initiated by the state government to contain the spread of the contagion. Andhra Pradesh has so far reported 252 cases of corona, 190 of them linked to the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation in South Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Andhra Pradesh reported around 62 new cases on Sunday evening and the state government had placed the residential locations of people who tested positive on a red alert list. The Prime Minister asked Jagan to intensify its monitoring efforts to trace, track and test people with signs of corona virus. AP saw a spurt in COVID-19 cases after March 20, when large numbers of people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Delhi, between March 13-15, began returning to their homes. Jagan had appealed to the people to refrain from blaming any particular community for the spread of the virus in the state.
Modi also called up TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Sunday to enquire about the situation in Telangana. He also dialled former Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil as well as former Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh on Sunday. He spoke to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Odisha CM and Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Prakash Singh Badal and DMK chief M.K. Stalin.