New Delhi: With strengthening public health system, clear risk communication and active participation, despite being the most populous state, the Yogi-led Uttar Pradesh has been able to effectively manage the pandemic with a steady decline in number of fresh cases and covid deaths as compared to other states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
As a result of swift measures, micro-planning, alertness and an aggressive approach to contain the virus, Uttar Pradesh has recorded a decline by 60 percent in the number of active covid cases since its peak on April 30, as the active cases have dropped from 3,10,783 to 1,23,589.
With the Covid condition in the state improving day by day, the recovery rate has climbed up to 91.40 percent.
Continuing its positive recovery trend, Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday also saw a whopping 19,669 Covid-19 patients discharged as against fresh cases dropping to 7,336, making it the lowest daily infection count for the state since mid-April.
Consequently, the daily case positivity rate too has dipped to 2.45 percent from a high of over 16.84 percent in April. Case positivity rate is the percentage of samples that test positive out of the total numbers of samples evaluated.
Uttar Pradesh has been showing a much better recovery in terms of low daily positivity rate as compared to several other places with lesser population as Goa (18.05%), Maharashtra (17.25%), Dadra & Nagar Haveli-Daman & Diu (13.26%), Chandigarh (12.04%), and Kerala (12.04%).
UP conducts record 2.99 Lakh tests in the last 24 hours
Scaling up the stringent testing mechanism as per CM Yogi’s target of ‘test, trace and treat’, the state is managing to break the covid chain with effective protocols in place, and by sticking to the time-tested strategy of case isolation and contact-tracing, combined with an alert community surveillance system.
The state has also emerged as a leader in terms of conducting maximum covid tests. A total of 4,55,31,018 covid tests have been done so far. As many as 2,99,327 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, making a national record. On the contrary, Delhi has only conducted nearly 1,84,07,486 covid tests so far.
Surveillance Committees constituted by CM Yogi to contain virus in rural UP
The Yogi Adityanath government has not only been taking steps to manage the covid situation in the high-load districts such as Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Prayagraj but also has been leaving no stone unturned in taking proper medical aid to the grassroots level in the remote villages in the state.
To stop the transmission of Covid-19 in rural pockets of UP, surveillance committees set up by the Yogi government have been playing a vital role. More than 4 lakh members of these 60,569 surveillance committees are conducting door-to-door tests, enabling early detection, isolation and treatment and curbing the virus from spreading further. Out of 2.99 Lakh covid tests conducted in the last 24 hours, over 2,19,000 tests were conducted in the rural areas.
The major outcome of increased testing is that the team has isolated a good number of persons under observation and have been providing proper medical treatment to the covid patients in home isolation at their doorstep.
CM Yogi has also been concurrently monitoring the work of these surveillance committees on a daily basis. The Chief Minister has also asked the surveillance teams to prepare a list of symptomatic patients so that they can be communicated through ICCC and CM Helpline and check the facilities available to them.
The key elements of the ‘Yogi Model’ such as contact tracing, early detection, isolation and free and timely provision of medicine kits and treatment to the rural populace has also won laurels from several expert bodies such as World Health Organization (WHO) and NITI Aayog, asking other states to replicate the mechanism.
Oxygen supply management
It is worth mentioning that Uttar Pradesh Government’s innovative model of developing an ‘OxyTracker’, a dashboard to track oxygen tankers in real time, to ensure transparency in its timely delivery to the needy hospitals and persons has also enabled the state to overcome the oxygen crisis, which emerged as one of the major challenges in India’s battle against the second Covid wave.
The system ensures smooth, timely and transparent supply of medical oxygen in times of crisis to the covid critical patients in government and private hospitals with 24×7 live monitoring of the life-saving fluid. It also has gathered huge praise by the NITI Aayog. As a result-1000MT O2 is being lifted instead of 250MT before and the state has also been able to reserve the stock to meet any sudden rise in demand.
The Yogi Government has also directed officials to proactively engage in the efforts to fight ‘black fungus’ so as to prevent it from acquiring serious proportions in the state in future. The Government has ensured the availability of essential medicines, noting that arrangements should be made for both prevention and treatment of the disease.