CM Yogi stresses on intense contact tracing in 3 metros
Voicing concern over the spike in coronavirus cases in Prayagraj, Lucknow and Kanpur Nagar, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked officials to intensify contact tracing there and arrest the rise in COVID-19 cases.
“Contact tracing should be done effectively and efficiently for preventing the spread of the infection,” Yogi said at the Unlock review meeting at Lok Bhawan here on Wednesday.
Reiterating his government’s stand to protect people from COVID-19 and ensure best treatment, the chief minister said that mass awareness and additional beds in Level-2 and Level-3 hospitals had been put high on active agenda.
Yogi said that manpower in hospitals be increased after training doctors and paramedics on COVID-19 treatment and asked officers to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, N-95 masks, gloves and sanitisers to the staff to protect them.
“Also, the CM Helpline should maintain communication with home-isolated patients and get feedback on their condition,” he said.
Directing the disposal of problems pertaining to investors and entrepreneurs in a time-bound manner, Yogi asked the officials to convene a meeting of Udyog Bandhu soon wherein he could interact with entrepreneurs to get their feedback.
The chief minister also directed officials to thrash out an action plan to increase goods and services tax (GST) collection and said that he would hold a virtual meeting with Trade Tax officers.
Yogi also stressed that all formalities should be completed to start the construction of ‘Uttar Pradesh Police Forensic University’ at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said that there were 64,028 active coronavirus cases across the state, while 2.16 lakh COVID-19 patients had recovered so far in the state, including 5,731 patients discharged from hospitals on Wednesday.
He said that 1.44 lakh sample were taken for testing on Tuesday, taking the total number of Covid tests in the state to 69 lakh.
The additional chief secretary said that there were 33,731 asymptomatic patients in home isolation at present. “Till date, 1.36 lakh patients have opted for home isolation and out of them, 1.02 lakh have recovered.
Prasad said that under surveillance and contact tracing, over 3.33 lakh Health department teams reached out to 95,487 areas and visited 2.33 crore houses and contacted over 11.14 crore people.
The additional chief secretary also announced that sero surveillance, underway in 11 big cities, was completed with the collection of samples for antibody testing on Wednesday.
“In a couple of days, we will know the results of the process after these samples are tested,” he said.
UP presently has 19,658 containment zones covering 15.83 lakh houses with a population of 91.49 lakh and there are 49,508 positive cases in these zones.
