Yogi Adityanath inspects medical facilities in Ayodhya, says UP preparing for third Covid wave

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday reviewed medical and health facilities in Ayodhya and visited the Raja Dashrath Medical College as part of an exercise to assess preparedness ahead of a possible third Covid-19 wave. Before that, the chief minister assessed a medical college being constructed in the city of Siddharthnagar.

At the medical college in Ayodhya, which was established in 2019, Adityanath monitored the facilities available for the treatment of Covid patients. He also inspected a recently installed oxygen plant and reviewed other healthcare facilities available for Covid patients.

The chief minister asked the district administration to formulate a detailed action plan to control the disease from spreading.

“Medical colleges are important institutions for better, superior and special healthcare facilities. But in the last 70 years, the state had only 12 medical colleges. The present government either built or sanctioned 32 medical colleges. There are no medical colleges in 16 districts. We’re planning to set up medical colleges in these districts on a PPP model before December,” he told the media.

The CM lauded health workers, and government and public representatives for their efforts in the last one-and-a-half years of the pandemic. He said, “We successfully fought against Covid and controlled two waves of the coronavirus. The government is also preparing for the suspected third wave. The pandemic gave us a lot to learn and understand. One thing is that prevention is the best way against an illness. A medical college is not just a centre of medical education and specialised health facilities, but it also should be a centre for health awareness. That way we can save humanity from being affected by a pandemic, just like India did during Corona pandemic. When we focus only on treatment then the result is just like what happened in Europe and America. The American health infrastructure is much better than India and Europe, but instead of health awareness, they focused more on treatment… America recorded around 1.5 times deaths than India.”

Emphasising that testing was the backbone of the efforts to curb Covid transmission as it helps in early detection of cases, isolation of patients, and contact tracing, the CM said the state government had been making its best efforts to expand the facilities to enlarge its testing capacity that was already almost up to four lakh tests a day.

Adityanath said the central and state governments were “committed to restoring Ayodhya to its ancient glory and importance”. Claiming that widespread development was being carried out in the city, he directed the authorities to expedite work. Reviewing presentations on the work being done to transform the city to a tourism hub, Adityanath said those coming to Ayodhya should receive world-class facilities.

“Ramnagari offers an amalgamation of spirituality and tourism and the state government is working dedicatedly for its development. Ayodhya will shine globally as Lakhs of devotees and pilgrims will visit the city in the coming time,” he added.

After arriving in Ayodhya in the afternoon, the chief minister visited the Ram Janmabhoomi site to inspect the progress made in the construction of the temple.