Stay alert, Yogi directs officials on Covid’s ‘Delta-Plus’ variant

LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday asked for initiating special alertness and caution in the state in view of cases of new coronavirus variant ‘Delta-Plus’ surfacing in several states in the country.

“Hold a meeting with the state expert committee on Covid and chalk out a strategy to tackle the new variant. Begin sample collections in the districts of UP that are closer to such states that have confirmed cases of Delta-Plus and then get genome sequencing done on those samples”, Yogi said.

According to his statement, the state is barely 3 lakh doses away from achieving the June month’s target of administering one crore doses state and is likely to overshoot the target as the state aims to give six lakh does each day till June 30.

The chief minister said this at the high-level Covid-19 review meeting and said that all necessary arrangements and equipment required for genome sequencing should be arranged at Lucknow’s King George’s Medical University (KGMU).

Yogi said that so far, the strategies that the state government had been applying proved effective in controlling Covid-19 infection in the state and the policy of ‘trace, test, treat’ must continue with efficiency.

Talking about vaccination, Yogi said, “Against June month’s target of the state government of administering one crore doses, the state has already administered 97 lakh jabs. Vaccination is an effective safety shield against the Covid, so that inoculation campaign in the state must continue effectively, with speed, and uninterrupted. From June 21 to 30, the state had made the target of minimum six lakh jabs each day and then from July 1 at least 10 lakh doses each day.”

He said that in the last 24 hours, a total of 229 fresh cases of Covid were reported in the state, while 308 patients recovered and discharged from hospitals, and only 3,552 cases are active across the state. He said Covid recovery rate was now 98.5% in the state.