CM Yogi Adityanath visits Covid-hit AMU, vows aid to control crisis

LUCKNOW: After a spate of deaths of faculty and staff of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) from Covid-19, chief minister Yogi Adityanath visited the campus on Thursday, met the vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor and took stock of the situation.
“I spoke to the VC on Tuesday and Wednesday on phone and was informed 16 persons from the university have died, 10 in Aligarh, two in Delhi and four died of other reasons. Vaccination could have saved lives. The VC raised the demand for additional oxygen, which has been provided,” the CM said.
A government spokesperson said, oxygen and medicines have been dispatched and the university brass has been promised every possible assistance in handling the situation. The CM also reviewed the vaccination programme and visited the integrated command and control centre, he said.
After inspection and a meeting with AMU VC and staff, the chief minister said, the state government had been working on a system of test, treat and trace that helped bring down active cases by 1.06 lakh over 12 days.
Anticipating a third wave, the government has set up a separate team to look at issues, like paediatric services, he said. A virtual seminar on post-Covid infections like black fungus will be held in the next few days.
“From the first day, we have worked on this policy and managed to control the second wave. Covid tests are happening across the state. We have carried out more than 4.36 crore tests. Compared to the first wave, the second wave’s biggest problem was the sudden rise in oxygen demand. There was no additional demand in the first wave, but with help from the Centre, Railways and Air Force, we have managed to address the problem and are supplying more than 1,000 tons of oxygen per day,” the CM said. Fourteen new oxygen plants had been approved for Aligarh division of which three are functional.
The CM said, active cases began to dip in Aligarh as well and over the past week, reduced by more than 200. He said, positivity rate had also fallen by around 20% to 5% currently.