The World Health Organisation (WHO) has lauded Uttar Pradesh model of door-to-door Covid surveillance on its website and social media pages saying that “Uttar Pradesh going the last mile to stop COVID”. In an article posted on May 7 on its website, the global health body wrote how Yogi Govt has taken proactive steps and complimented them for the same.
It praised the Yogi Government’s initiative of house-to-house active case finding of Covid-19 in rural areas to contain Covid-19 by testing people with symptoms, disease management and contact tracing.
In #India‘s 🇮🇳 most populous state Uttar Pradesh, the state gov. has initiated house-to-house active case finding of #COVID19 in rural areas to contain transmission by testing people with symptoms for rapid isolation, disease management & contact tracing
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 10, 2021
👉https://t.co/pbDi98UByQ pic.twitter.com/7H2yXcU0if
WHO said on Twitter that “the Uttar Pradesh government has deployed 1,41,610 teams and 21,242 supervisors from the state health department to ensure all rural areas are covered with this Covid-19 case finding activity”.
In a drive that kick started on May 5, teams formed by the Yogi Adityanath government are going door to door in rural areas to contain the transmission. “Those who tested positive are isolated and given a medicine kit with advice on disease management. All contacts of those who tested positive are quarantined and tested,” wrote WHO, adding that it is supporting Uttar Pradesh government in training and micro planning.
The global health body said that its field officers are on the ground to monitor and share real-time feedback with the government for immediate corrective action to ensure quality.
“On the inaugural day, the field officers monitored over 2,000 government teams and visited at least 10,000 households. It is also supporting the UP government on the compilation of the final reports”, wrote WHO in its Tweet.
Yogi Govt takes proactive steps to contain Covid in remote hamlets of Uttar Pradesh
The Yogi government, which has taken proactive steps to contain the spread of the deadly pathogen in the state of Uttar Pradesh, started the campaign on May 5 with teams moving across 97,941 villages in 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh. Each monitoring team has been assigned two members who visit homes in these remote villages to test everyone with symptoms of COVID-19 using Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) kits. Those who test positive are being quickly isolated and given a medicine kit with advice on the disease.
The contacts of those who test positive are being quarantined and tested using an RT-PCR at home by a rapid response team.
The Yogi Government has advised the monitoring teams to constantly monitor the system of medical kit distribution and also asked them to provide the name and contact numbers to those receiving the medical kit to ICCC which in turn would revise the list.
The Govt has also asked the teams to make a copy of these names available to the local public representatives through the District Magistrate so that MPs/MLAs can get medical kits and communicate with the people. By doing this, the govt would also be able to cross verify the system. Every person with suspected symptoms must have an antigen test, clarified the state government.
Further, the government in the state has said to have allocated two vans to each block within a district in the state to test people with symptoms. This is being conducted along with routine sample collection and testing in community health centres.
Special arrangements for the health protection of children
The Yogi Government is further ensuring that special arrangements for the health protection of children are made in all districts. For this purpose, the Yogi Govt has instructed his specially formed Team-09, set up to manage Coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh, to prepare pediatric ICUs with a capacity of a minimum of 10-15 beds in all district hospitals and 25-30 beds in medical colleges. The govt instructed that there should be a minimum 100-bed pediatric ICU at Divisional Headquarters and all necessary medical equipment, medicine, etc. should be made available on an urgent basis. Moreover, physicians and other staff should be trained immediately in this regard.
Ventilators and oxygen concentrators should be operational in all districts
The State Government has made all necessary arrangements to ensure that ventilators and oxygen concentrators are provided in all districts. Yogi Adityanath, instructed that ACS Health and the Principal Secretary of Medical Education should ensure that these devices are operational in each case. He asked the authorities to contact the concerned districts and get their problems resolved in this regard.
The CM added that if the ventilators or the oxygen concentrator in any district is not reported to be functional, then the onus of the same would lie on the concerned DM/CMO.
Arrangement of life-saving drugs like Remdesivir
The State Government also instructed that all arrangements should be made to ensure that there is enough supply of life-saving drugs like Remdesivir in the state at all times. He confirmed that in the State Government COVID facilities drugs like Remdesivir was being provided absolutely free. While it is being made available to private hospitals by the DM/CMO as per requirement.
UP Administration has been instructed to ensure that whenever a patient being administered this injection, a doctor should be present there along with the nursing staff.
The govt asked authorities to maintain a detailed record of the demand, supply, and consumption of this life-saving medicine.
State providing vaccine safety cover to all citizens
The Yogi Government informed that to protect the citizens against the Coronavirus, the state government is providing vaccine safety cover to all citizens. It informed that Uttar Pradesh is by far the most vaccinated state in the country with so far 1,39,08,152 doses already administered.
Vaccination of the 18-44 age group is now being conducted in 18 districts. On May 10,50,157 people in this age group were inoculated. Thus, more than 1.66 lakh people aged 18 to 44 have been vaccinated in the state. Vaccine waste is also declining in this age group, currently, it is 0.6 per cent, informed the state administration.
The UP govt further ordered the state administration to speed up the process of selection and appointment of medical/paramedical final year, interns, youth who have completed training, retired experienced people to increase the medical human resources, which the govt believes is paramount to tackle the future challenges. It asked the Minister of Medical Education to undertake a detailed review of this recruitment process.
‘Trace, test, and treat’ mantra yielding positive results
State administration has informed that Covid sample testing work has been going on uninterrupted in the state. In the last 24 hours, 2,33,705 sample tests were conducted, of which 1,10,000 tests were conducted only through RTPCR. So far, 4,34,04,184 crore tests have been conducted in the state. It said that the state is taking action expeditiously as per the mantra of ‘Test, track and treat’.
In the last 24 hours, 20,463 new Covid cases have been confirmed in the state, while 29,358 people have recovered and have been discharged during the same period. The govt said that the COVID situation in the state is satisfactory as new Covid cases are decreasing, while the recovery rate is getting better.
The Administration confirmed that its policy of trace, test, and treat are yielding good result. It said that the active Covid cases which stood at 3,10,783 on April 30, reduced by more than 95,000 as of today due to continuous efforts.
“At present, there are 2,16,057 active Covid cases in the state. The state’s recovery rate is continuously getting better. So far, over 13.13 lakh people have successfully won the battle with Corona”, the Govt informed.
Global tenders issued for the availability of cryogenic tankers
Providing information on how the state government has been battling oxygen crisis in the state, the govt said that global tenders have been issued for the availability of cryogenic tankers. Moreover, with the help of the central government and Reliance Industries, the number of tankers have rapidly increased in the state, which has helped the state to further improve its oxygen supply.
Giving information on how medical oxygen is being efficiently made available to all districts in the state, the Govt informed that in the last 24 hours, 1,011 metric tonnes of oxygen has been distributed in the state. Of this, 632 metric tonnes have been supplied to refillers and 301 metric tonnes to medical colleges.
“Oxygen availability is getting better in larger and higher transition rates districts like Varanasi, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Kanpur. Today a new train of 08 tankers is coming, while Jeevanakshak Express with 10 tankers is parked in Lucknow”, said the state govt asking authorities to properly distribute the procured stock within the district so that none of the areas in the state remains uncovered.
The Govt said that special attention needs to be given to the districts with low infection rates. It asked authorities to make a separate action plan pertaining to the distribution of oxygen supply to all the districts.
Well-being of daily wagers in these testing times paramount
The state asked administration to keep the well-being of street hawkers, vendors, construction workers and labourers are their top priority. It said that since a partial lockdown has been implemented in the state to beat the surge, proper arrangements should be made to take care of these daily wagers.
The state has started more than 350 community eateries in the state and efforts should be made to further increase this number. The state govt has asked the administration to make sure that such community kitchens are operational in every district of the state and to ensure this materialises the Govt suggested that cooperation from private voluntary organizations could be sought.
Cleanliness, medicine, hardness
Following the mantra of ‘cleanliness, medicine, hardness’, a campaign of state-wide sanitation, sanitization is being carried out in the state. The state govt informed that as a part of this initiative sanitation, sanitization, fogging was done in 63080 villages yesterday. It asked authorities to spread awareness and the need for cleanliness and hygiene amongst the citizens and continue to implement the Corona curfew effectively to curtail the spread of the virus.
Other measures
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had previously directed the COVID management team to ensure that the oxygen generated by the sugar mills is supplied to the nearest CHC (Community Health Centre).
All necessary efforts are being made to increase the availability of oxygen. In view of future needs, oxygen plants are being set up in all districts of the state by the central government, state government as well as private sector for the availability of oxygen. Various PSUs are also setting up plants at their level.
Uttar Pradesh CM gets on the ground to boost people’s confidence
Along with various measures, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is making sure to be personally available for his citizens to boost their morale in these testing times. According to reports, Yogi Adityanath himself visited homes of people in Muradabad on May 8 (Saturday) and inquired about their health amid the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
He also visited Bareilly where he instructed the administration to be prepared for a third wave of the pandemic. He instructed the officers to ensure that the beds and oxygen supply is increased. He said that the third wave of the pandemic could be a reality and hence they should not let their guards down. The UP CM also added that the state government and the central government are working together to deal with the second wave of coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking to the media, Yogi Adityanath informed that in past eight days, over 65,000 active coronavirus cases have been reduced in the state.
