Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Yogi to send teams for reports on 11 high-incidence districts

- HT Correspond­ent letters@htlive.com ■

LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said the state government would send officers and medical teams to 11 high Covid-19 incidence districts and sought reports from officials within five days.

The districts are Agra, Meerut, Kanpur city, Aligarh, Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), Ghaziabad, Moradabad, Firozabad, Bulandshah­r, Jhansi, and Basti.

“The teams would study and analyse the high incidence and mortality, possible factors, and submit a report within five days so that an action plan could be devised for these districts,” he said to the newly appointed nodal officers for the 11 districts.

“An asymptomat­ic person cannot be allowed to stay home. Admit even an asymptomat­ic Covid-19 carrier in hospital. Covid-19 infection has to be halted at any cost. There is always the possibilit­y of infection spreading from an asymptomat­ic patient. The state has one lakh Covid-19 beds,” Yogi Adityanath said.

“The teams that are going to the 11 districts must make all efforts towards breaking the infection chain, containing the spread. Measures can be adopted to control the spread and death

rate. The teams should focus on consolidat­ing the Covid-19 surveillan­ce system and the health system,” he said.

Yogi told the nodal officers how a strengthen­ed surveillan­ce and health system led to control of encephalit­is in eastern UP region.

“In the last three years, with strategies and coordinate­d efforts, the encephalit­is infection rate was cut by 60% and the death rate by 90%. Interdepar­tmental coordinati­on and action led to such results. All activities were micro-managed. We have to control Covid-19 the way we did encephalit­is,” he said.

The chief minister suggested optimum use of medical facilities available in the districts concerned.

‘USE TECH FOR WEATHER FORECAST’

Earlier in the day, the chief minister said the meteorolog­ical department, agricultur­al universiti­es and Krishi Vigyan Kendras could develop a mechanism for accurate weather forecast.

Informatio­n obtained through this mechanism should be provided to common people as well as farmers, so that the damage caused by the weather could be prevented, he added.

“We can prevent loss of life and property due to heavy rain and lightning by using technol

ogy in a better way. We can keep farmers alert through weather forecast,” he said at a webinar on the 31st Foundation Day of the Uttar Pradesh Council of Agricultur­al Research on Sunday.

He also said the condition of farmers in the state had undergone a major change for the better in the last three years.

“Before our government came to power in Uttar Pradesh three years ago, the farmers of the state were forced to commit suicide due to neglect and disregard, but now the situation has changed and farmers are satisfied,” he added.

He said Uttar Pradesh, under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, succeeded in sending Rs 2,000 every month to the bank accounts of 2.4 lakh farmers in the last three months.

“This could be attained only due to technology,” he said.

“During the coronaviru­s crisis, the government made every effort to ensure that no farmer faced any problem while breaking the coronaviru­s chain. We successful­ly operated 119 sugar mills during the four phases of the lockdown and sugarcane crushing is almost complete in the state now,” he added.

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