WHILE placing the decisions of the Polit Bureau meeting, which was held at New Delhi on March 14-15, Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of CPI(M) demanded creation of a ‘national contingency fund’ to meet the challenge of COVID-19. He said the spread of COVID-19 is a serious situation and as pointed out by some of the ICMR sources, it has already entered the third stage in the country; the results, if proper procedure is not followed, could be horrendous, he remarked.