HEALTH DEPT INTENSIFIES SURVEY TO PROTECT MIGRANTS AGAINST COVID

LUCKNOW : The state health department has started surveying the hotspots as well as the non-hotspots in all the districts in a bid to check the spread of coronavirus infection among migrant workers. Addressing a joint press conference, additional chief secretary, home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi and principal secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad, said 87,141 teams of the health department, engaged in surveillance of corona infection in the state, have already surveyed 11,081 areas, including 2,656 hotspots and 8,425 non-hotspots. The team has surveyed 69.78 lakh houses and screened 3.49 crore people. The migrant workers have been told to stay in home quarantine for 21 days. ASHA workers and surveillance teams have been deployed to screen the migrants living in home quarantine. The ASHA workers have already screened 6.59 lakh migrants. The samples of 764 migrants with symptoms of fever, cold and cough have been sent for laboratory tests, the officers said.

They said there has been a reduction in active cases in the state since May 11 and the number of patients getting cured is increasing. While 2,243 active cases have been reported, 3,238 patients have been discharged from hospital after recovery. The death tally reached 138 on Friday morning, they said.

Awasthi said around 20 lakh people have returned to the state and majority of them have been put in home quarantine. Sixteen lakh migrants have gone to villages under 46,103 gram panchayats after screening, while 2.24 lakh migrants have gone to wards in the urban areas. He said chief minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed that infrared thermometers should be made available at every quarantine centre for strengthening of screening at primary level, timely treatment and preventing spread of infection. The ferrying of migrant workers by Shramik special trains is continuing. Till Friday morning, 5.36 lakh migrants have come from Gujarat, 2.46 lakh from Maharashtra, 1.80 lakh from Punjab and 69,000 from Delhi. Daily 100 trains are ferrying migrants to UP.