PM Modi cancels visit to poll-bound West Bengal to review COVID-19 situation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will chair a high-level meeting to review the 'prevailing COVID-19 situation' amid rapidly increasing coronavirus cases in the country.

Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister informed that he will not be going to poll-bound West Bengal, as scheduled, due to the meeting.

"Tomorrow, will be chairing high-level meetings to review the prevailing COVID-19 situation. Due to that, I would not be going to West Bengal," PM Modi tweeted.

Earlier today, the Prime Minister chaired a high-level meeting to review the oxygen supply across the country and discussed ways and means to boost its availability.

He was also briefed on the efforts undertaken in the last few weeks to improve the supply of oxygen. There has been an increase in the demand of medical oxygen due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country in the second wave of pandemic.

More than 3 lakh new COVID-19 cases and over 2,000 deaths were reported in India on Thursday, a record-high since the pandemic broke out last year.

As per the Union Health Ministry, as many as 3,14,835 new COVID-19 cases and 2,104 deaths were reported, taking the total cases to 1,59,30,965, including 22,91,428 active cases.

As many as 1,34,54,880 recoveries have been reported so far, out of which 1,78,841 were reported in the last 24 hours. The death toll related to the infection stands at 1,84,657.

( With inputs from ANI )