Increase surveillance in five high viral load districts: UP CM Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: The government will be increasing surveillance and contact tracing in five districts, including Lucknow which recorded the highest 308 Covid-19 cases in a day on Thursday, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Kanpur and Jhansi. The decision was taken by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at a meeting on Thursday night in which he also added that rapid antigen testing should also be increased in these districts. The CM has also raised concerns about the increasing number of hotspots in the state, which by Thursday had touched 4,510.
With 2,083 positive cases on Thursday, UP recorded its highest number of corona positive cases on a single day. During Thursday evening’s review, head of the pulmonary and critical care department in KGMU, Dr Ved Prakash, informed the CM that the number of cases was rising at present due to a high level of humidity in monsoon. He has also advised the CM that unlike the current protocol where asymptomatic patients are also being kept in institutional quarantine, those either not displaying symptoms or showing mild symptoms should be kept in home isolation. According to Dr Prakash, 80% of the cases are asymptomatic or mild, 15% are moderate and only 5% require critical care.
A committee of directors and senior doctors from PGI, KGMU and RML will be constituted in the coming days to prepare a roadmap for arresting the rise in Covid-positive patients in the state.
Awanish Awasthi, additional chief secretary (home), said that there are currently 10.55 lakh houses under hotspot zones where 62 lakh people are under surveillance. “A detailed review will be carried out to analyse why cases are rising and how to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.
While reviewing the situation in the five sensitive districts, the CM stressed on strengthening the surveillance system to identify Covid-19 cases at the earliest so that they can be hospitalised on time, ensuring both timely treatment and preventing the virus from spreading to others. “In these five districts which have become areas of concern, contact tracing has to be increased to 100% and expedited to identify all those exposed to an infected person. While testing will be increased in these districts, antigen testing will help in showing results faster,” the official said.
He added that the CM has also directed officials to keep L2 and L3 Covid hospitals free for serious cases and therefore, asymptomatic cases should only be referred to L1 hospitals. “Exception will only be made for those older than 65 years or those with comorbidities,” the official added.
On Thursday, Jhansi reported 113 cases, followed by Varanasi with 78, Prayagraj with 56 and Kanpur City with 51 cases.
The CM has also directed all nodal officers appointed for each of the 75 districts, one each from the administration and the police force, to reach their assigned districts latest by Friday night to be able to supervise the weekend restrictions which have been put in place from this month. The officials have been tasked with monitoring the special sanitation and sanitization drives, availability of potable water, condition of hospitals and implementation of rules. Fogging has to be done compulsorily in each district.
Special attention will be given to police barracks to ensure that the infection does not spread among the police force. The CM has directed officials to create a protocol for quarantine in case a personnel has had to leave the barrack for any reason.