After several serving professors of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) succumbed to Covid-19 in the last few weeks, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the campus on Thursday and took stock of the arrangements made to prevent the spread of the virus. He also held discussions with Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor and other officials.
The chief minister visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College campus and monitored the facilities that are available for treating patients in Aligarh and AMU in particular.
According to a statement issued by the state government, the CM also went for spot inspection of the integrated Command and Control Centre and reviewed the healthcare facilities available for Covid patients.
Before his visit, the chief minister had expressed concern and grief over the deaths of the several professors and staff of AMU, including 16 faculty members, on campus. He had called up V-C Mansoor, assuring him of all required help to fight the Covid-19 menace.
“The CM assured all possible assistance in terms of medicines, medical equipment, availability of ambulance and oxygen cylinders for Covid treatment. To step up preventive measures against the spread of the virus, the chief minister asked for a detailed report on the ongoing activities in the university,” the statement added.
Alarmed by the deaths, the AMU V-C had written to the Indian Council of Medical Research on May 9, urging it to study if a particular coronavirus variant is circulating around the university campus.
The university’s medical college had also sent some samples for genome sequencing to the Institute of Genomics and Integrated Biology Laboratory, Delhi.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the chief minister said he hoped that the situation in the university would improve once the vaccination drive on the campus picks up.
Meanwhile, the Congress termed Adityanath’s visit “an attempt to cover up the total breakdown of health services in UP”.
He said the supply of oxygen to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College is being increased.
The supply began on Wednesday and this will resolve any shortage of oxygen.
Officials at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College have been seeking urgent supplies of oxygen cylinders for the last two weeks.
According to hospital authorities, the medical college hadn’t received a single oxygen cylinder in a fortnight till Wednesday and was solely dependent on its three liquid oxygen plants.
Though the hospital authorities have not reported any deaths due to oxygen scarcity, there have been unofficial reports pointing to acute patient distress caused by the non-availability of oxygen cylinders and “low-pressure levels” in pipe supply.
In order to give a wider coverage of the vaccination programme and to bring down the transmission level, the CM also held a high-level meeting with the administrative officials and issued a slew of instructions to accelerate the vaccination drive and increase the number of vaccination centres.
Besides, to enable early detection and treatment of Covid, CM Yogi also issued directives to double the number of Covid testing as per the target of ‘test, trace and treat’ strategy. He instructed the district administration to hold virtual meetings with public representatives once every week. With this, to increase manpower in hospitals for effective and timely medical care of Covid patients, regular para medical training must be given to volunteers. Adityanath reiterated the importance of double masking, distancing and hand hygiene and said masks should seal the air passage around the nose and mouth for proper protection.
Later in the day, the CM also visited Mathura and inspected the integrated covid command centre over there. He met with the officials concerned with Covid tracing and treatment, and took note of the tele-consultancy services, medical kit distribution, ambulance services and bed allotment. He also asked the authorities concerned to continuously take feedback from patients in home isolation.
Adityanath also held a meeting to review the Covid-19 situation in Aligarh with district officials at the integrated Covid control centre.
He said there has been a “decline in active COVID-19 cases” in the Aligarh division “in the past week as compared to the previous week”.
Adityanath also claimed that there has been a marked decline in the number of active cases across the state over the past few days and added that steps are being taken to augment oxygen supplies.
With PTI inputs