Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday directed the COVID management team to ensure that the oxygen generated by the sugar mills is supplied to the nearest CHC (Community Health Centre). CHCs are a secondary level of healthcare that aims to provide referral as well as specialist health care to the rural population.
The sugar mills will help the government to set up two plants each in all districts. In addition, oxygen concentrators have been made available from CHC level to large hospitals. According to the needs of the districts, Yogi Adityanath has asked the team to buy oxygen concentrators. Industries and corporate have also been approached to chip in as part of the CSR (corporate social responsibility).
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.
Arrangement for oxygen supply
The state government has assured that all necessary arrangements are being made to ensure the supply of oxygen to all the districts in the state as per the requirement. On 5th May 2021, 823 metric tonnes of oxygen was distributed in the state of which 80 metric tonnes of oxygen came from Jamnagar in Gujarat.
- Currently, 89 tankers are active in oxygen-related work. The government of India has given 400 metric tonne tankers to the state. Tankers have been made available by private industrial groups such as Reliance and Adani. Since there is a need to increase the number of tankers with regards to oxygen, the state is considering floating a global tender to procure cryogenic tankers.
Oxygen audit
The state government has informed that an oxygen audit has been conducted by seven reputed institutions of the state in collaboration with the objective of minimising oxygen waste. Yogi Adityanath has instructed that based on the oxygen audit report, demand, supply should be balanced and a separate action plan regarding oxygen for each district should be prepared immediately.
Arrangements for non-COVID patients
Yogi Adityanath instructed that all arrangements should be made for non-covid patients. State administration has been instructed to make appropriate medical arrangements including ambulances for all patients, who are suffering from serious diseases or emergency needs of pregnant women. A minimum of one hospital in every district should be dedicated to such patients.
Oxygen supply to home isolation
UP Administration has been instructed to ensure oxygen supply to home isolation as well as non-covid patients and that there is no shortage of cylinders. Arrangements to be made to supply on-demand oxygen to home isolation patients so that they don’t face trouble.
Ventilators availability
As per the state government, the Department of Health and the Department of Medical Education has been instructed that ventilators are made available in all the districts of the state the and their functionality should be ensured. Anaesthetic and other technicians have been appointed. State administration has been instructed to take necessary action to make additional arrangements for ventilators as well as manpower.
Testing, tracking and treating
UP government’s efforts which are rolled out in accordance with the policy of test, track and treat are getting satisfactory results. On average, UP is currently testing about 2 to 2.5 lakh people. At the same time, the total number of new cases is also constantly declining. Along with this, the number of people recovering and discharging is increasing rapidly.
In the last 24 hours, 26,780 new cases were confirmed in the state while 28,902 Covid patients recovered. So far, 11,51,571 people have won the battle against Covid. There are currently a total of 2,59,844 active cases. The number of active cases was highest on 30th April 2021, when there were 3,10,783 cases in the state. Today, it has dropped by more than 50 thousand in a period of 6 days.
Vaccination
State administration has informed that Covid vaccination work is going on smoothly. So far, 1,32,55,955 vaccine doses have been administered. Continuous efforts have led to a reduction in vaccine wastage. 68,536 people in the age group of 18-44 have been vaccinated so far.
Vaccination of 18-44 age group is going on in seven districts with high infection rate and plans are in place to expand it in a phased manner.
Village and COVID management
Further, door-to-door screening and testing of 97,000 revenue villages of the state has started.
Yogi Adityanath has instructed that doctors should be in constant contact with the patients in villages through teleconsultation and the higher medical facility should also be provided to them as per the requirement. This campaign of village-to-village testing is very useful in protecting villages from infection. Along with this, the testing in the urban area should continue unchanged, Yogi said and instructed the team to keep in touch with the monitoring committees.
He further instructed to contract tracing in all districts so as to effectively break the transmission chain.
Preparing for future
The second wave of coronavirus pandemic has left the healthcare system struggling. Keeping in mind any future challenges that might come their way, Yogi Adityanath has asked the team to assess the availability of beds, manpower, medical equipment, oxygen and medicines and instructed that it is expedited to double the present capacity.
Hospital facility
Taking cognisance of certain incidents where some hospitals charged more than the rates fixed by the government or certain hospitals refusing to admit patients even though beds were empty which led to an atmosphere of panic and fear, Yogi instructed that strict action be taken against such hospitals. Incidents of harassment, exploitation should be strictly stopped immediately, Yogi instructed.
He further said that for Covid Hospital, the patient’s family must be informed about the health of the patient under treatment, line of treatment, etc. every day so that the family is aware of their patients.
Curfew and other measures
Yogi Adityanath has instructed the administration to effectively apply partial curfew in the state to curb the infection. On Friday, which will also mark Alvida Namaz, the last Friday of the holy month of Ramzan, COVID protocol should be maintained and the same should be communicated with religious leaders, he said. He also instructed that the police should be empathetic to people who are out to buy medicines for the loved ones.
He further instructed that community kitchens should be run for the needy, cart runners, rickshaws etc. As of now, they are being run in Lucknow and Prayagraj but the same should be opened in other districts, he said. He also instructed that proper food arrangements is made in the quarantine centres and ration distribution process is done smoothly.
Further, all major construction projects including expressways, roads, housing projects will continue in the state and these will be completed in time-bound manner.