State govt readies PICU beds to tackle third wave
Uttar Pradesh first state to conduct 4.50 crore Covid tests, says CM
NOIDA/MEERUT: The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday announced that all the districts will be equipped with adequate paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) beds to provide exclusive care and treatment to children. The move follows predictions by experts that the third wave of Covid-19 is likely to infect children.
In this context, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said his government was all set to tackle the new wave like its “proactive” handling of encephalitis cases in the eastern region of the state earlier.
He also announced that the process was on to set up 35 oxygen plants in Meerut division, including 10 in Meerut
district itself. He noted that the state had witnessed a decline of 1.5 lakh active Covid-19 cases in the last 15 days. Uttar Pradesh had become the first state to conduct 4.50 crore Covid tests, he said, adding it had administered over 1.50 crore vaccine doses so far. The chief minister was in Noida and Meerut to review the situation there.
“From 1977 to 2017, the average annual fatality due to encephalitis was nearly 1,500. But due to the proper co-ordination between all departments concerned, it has been reduced now to double digits. The training of health officials for working in PICU has already begun and very soon all the government hospitals, community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) will have adequate number of PICU beds,” he said while addressing journalists in the conference hall of NTPC power management institute in Noida.
To a query about inaccessibility of CoWIN app, especially in rural areas, he said that the government had also decided to inoculate the people in rural areas through common service centres (CSCs).
“The staff of these CHCs will contact the people going doorto-door and compile their details with the district vaccination department to provide a vaccination centre in their vicinity. It can be CHCs, PHCs, schools, panchayat buildings or any public place which have waiting, vaccination and observation rooms,” the chief minister said.
He also said that pre-bids have already been floated to ensure 100% vaccine coverage in the state.
“As many as six companies have turned up with some queries, which are being replied by the officials concerned. We’ve so far given over 1.5 crore doses of vaccines as the first and second jabs to the beneficiaries. Compliance of central government’s directions in inoculating people over 45 years of age has also yielded positive results as the wastage of vaccines has now reduced to 2-3% as compared to 22% wastage during the vaccination of healthcare workers,” he said.
He also said in view of postCovid diseases like black fungus, the health department had been asked to provide all the essential drugs needed for its treatment to every hospital in the state.
Yogi said that during his visits to remote villages since May 7 in many districts, it was found that people are hesitant to go to CHCs and PHCs for Covid-19 testing.
“The job of rapid response teams (RRT) begins here and they have adroitly handled the situation there,” he said.
Apart from conducting doorto-door rapid antigen testing, they also distributed over three lakh medical kits, comprising all essential medicines to check the further spread of Covid-19 in these areas, he added.
“As a result of this proactive approach of RRT, while the case positivity rate (CPR) of the state has come down to 5% from 22%, the case fatality rate (CFR) is around 1%. In terms of testing, UP leads with 4.5 crore testing – which is much ahead of 3 crore testing in Maharashtra. It is the effort of our officials that despite having a huge population, about whom the experts have predicted to have nearly one lakh fresh caseload every day between mid-April and mid-May, UP recorded only 10,600 cases on May 16. At present, we have 1.63 lakh active cases out of which only 42,000 are in hospitals. The remaining patients are under home isolation and they are continuously being monitored by the doctors,” he said.
Giving the details of hospital beds in the state, chief minister said that at present the state had 80,000 beds, including 72,000 in government hospitals. “Besides, we have 2,200 ambulances and 350 life-saving ambulances for the Covid patients,” he added.
After his arrival in Meerut in the evening, the chief minister visited the Covid control command centre on the collectorate premises.
The chief minister also saw the first police Covid hospital at the police lines. He also held a review meeting with officials. Chief medical officer (Meerut) Dr Akhilesh Mohan briefed him that 1793 patients were undergoing treatment in different Covid hospitals and 7559 were receiving treatment in home isolation in Meerut.
Adityanath then visited Bijauli village in the Kharkhauda area of Meerut where he interacted with family members of a Covid-19 patient. He also went to the primary health centre (PHC) in the village and interacted with Asha (accredited social health activists) workers.
He reiterated that three months’ ration would be given for free to 15 crore people in the state. Besides, sustenance allowance would be given to street vendors, labourers and daily wagers, he added. Both the decisions were taken by the state cabinet on Saturday.