No need to panic, state govt ready for any situation: Yogi
As far as possible, people should avoid visiting crowded places
VARANASI: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday appealed to people to take preventive measures to keep coronavirus at bay. He also said the state government was fully alert and ready to face any situation.
Adityanath inspected the isolation ward at Pandit Deendayal Upadhayay district hospital in Varanasi and instructed the doctors there to remain alert.
Later, he said to reporters: “The state government is fully alert and ready to face any situation. There is no need to panic.”
He said as far as possible, people should avoid visiting crowded places. At the same, rumours should not be spread in the name of coronavirus, he added. Instead of shaking hands, say ‘namaste’, he suggested.
The chief minister said isolation wards had been set up in every district hospital as well as in medical colleges and divisional hospitals.
He said there were five microbiology labs in the state for testing coronavirus. Samples of suspected cases of coronavirus were being tested at these labs, he said.
“With assistance from the central government, we have set up five laboratories to provide the facility of sample checking of coronavirus cases in the state. King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Lucknow, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), Lucknow, Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, Gorakhpur, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and one in Aligarh,” said Adityanath. Commenting on the preparedness of the state government with respect to COVID-19, Adityanath said: “There is no need to panic. We have issued an advisory and have asked people to take necessary precautions. A total of 1268 isolation beds are available in private and government hospitals across the state. Today, I visited Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) district hospital here and checked the facilities available in isolation wards of the hospital. We are taking all the necessary actions to deal with it.”
Adityanath on Friday had ordered all schools, colleges, technical and vocational education institutes to remain closed till March 22.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister spoke at an event said Uttar Pradesh would have the largest economy in the country.
He also offered prayers at Kashi Vishwanath temple and reviewed the progress of Kashi Vishwanath corridor project.
Later, chief minister Yogi Adityanath also visited Jaunpur and took stock of the damage caused to crops by heavy rain. He provided a cheque worth Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of three people killed by lightning in the district. Besides, financial relief was provided to 51 farmers whose crop was affected by hailstorm.