We proved bleak predictions wrong by taming second wave, says Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh government will give 10-12 lakh doses daily to meet the target of vaccinating 10 crore people over the next three months. In an exclusive interview with TOI, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the state will meet the target if it gets sufficient vaccines.
“In April, when the Centre wanted to see the capacity of all states to administer vaccines, UP gave 6 lakh shots on a single day,” the CM said, adding, “We have now demanded that population should be kept in mind when distributing vaccines. The Centre has agreed to this.”
Elaborating how the state has proved bleak predictions wrong,the CM said the strategy of trace, test and treat, praised by the World Health Organisation, has been successful in taming the second wave. "Niti Aayog had predicted that UP would be the worst hit and would surpass Maharashtra by mid-May with 30 lakh active cases. But such predictions have been proven wrong," he added.
“When cases declined, many states reduced testing, but not Uttar Pradesh. We continued to undertake more than three lakh tests per day,” the chief minister said.
Emphasising that factors like “digital divide” and “vaccine hesitancy” will not have adverse impact on the vaccination drive, he said the government is neutralising such misinformation and myths with awareness campaigns.
On the impact of Covid curfew on the economy, Yogi said UP’s economy is better than what it was last year because the government did not go for complete closure and continued the economic activities.
The CM refuted the charges that his government became complacent when the first wave waned. “The fact that the number of Covid-19 tests being conducted till the mid-March was around 1.25 lakh proves my point. There may, however, have been a gap in judging the intensity with which the second wave came. In fact, no one in the world, including experts, had an idea about it.” He also termed the allegations of the government muzzling the voices of people seeking help on social media as “baseless”.
Asked about the uproar over floating bodies and those buried on the river banks, Yogi said that was also the result of rumours and misconceptions. “The government has been urging people to cremate the dead bodies and not throw them in rivers. Also many people faced financial problems in cremating dead bodies. We had already allocated funds for cremating bodies," he added.