Stepping up precautionary measures in view of a small rise in COVID-19 cases, the Yogi Adityanath government has put all the frontline workers and government as well as private hospitals on ‘alert mode’.
Instructions have been given by the government to take necessary action immediately in districts where confirmed COVID-19 cases are found. Along with this, instructions have also been given to strictly monitor the cases of respiratory tract infection (RTI), influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) in all the districts.
As of March 28, the number of active COVID-19 patients in Uttar Pradesh was 340.
The instructions were issued during a presentation on communicable disease control and Dastak abhiyan before the chief secretary.
Accordingly, the district officials have been directed to inform the senior officials immediately about the increase in RTI, ILI, SARI cases. Besides, there are also orders for intensive sampling at places where COVID-19 cases are reported. The samples will then be sent for genome sequencing to the King George’s Medical University in Lucknow.
The government has also asked officials to take special care and precautions for elderly patients. Apart from this, instructions have been given to ensure availability of logistics, medicines, personal protection equipment (PPE) kits, gloves, masks and equipment, oxygen plant and concentrator in hospitals.
The district administration has been asked to ensure that dedicated hospitals and wards are activated immediately.
As of March 28, the districts most affected by COVID-19 are Gautam Buddha Nagar (57), Ghaziabad (55), Lakhimpur Kheri (44), Lucknow (27), Bijnor (12), Lalitpur (9) and Saharanpur (8).
The officials have been directed to carefully monitor the present situation in these districts. Directions have also been issued for increasing testing and treatment in the affected districts and for taking special precautions in districts that were most affected in the previous COVID-19 waves.
Meanwhile, a communicable disease control campaign will be launched in the state from April 1 to April 30. The Dastak campaign will run from April 17 to 30. Under this, arrangements will be made for cleanliness and removal of water-logging in rural and urban areas. Along with this, intensive vector, mosquito control activities will be carried out in high risk areas with inter-departmental cooperation.
Awareness activities will be organised in schools for prevention of diseases. During the Dastak campaign, screening and treatment of symptomatic persons identified by the frontline workers will be ensured.
