Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with the Health department officials at his residence on Saturday morning regarding spread of dengue in the state and issued directions to the nodal officers to make field visits to ensure implementation of dengue prevention measures.
The chief minister advised the officials to step up surveillance in the affected areas.
“All municipal corporations and local bodies of the state should conduct special cleanliness, fogging and anti-larva spray campaigns,” he said.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also asked the officials to ensure availability of doctors and medicines at the health facilities. He said the patients coming to hospitals must receive the required health care at all costs.
Earlier, on October 26, the chief minister had directed the Health department officials to take extra precautions against dengue. Along with this, instructions were given to set up isolation wards in each district hospital and to assure the availability of medicines and other necessities like beds.
In addition to this, the chief minister had urged citizens of the state to be on guard against communicable diseases and take all necessary precautions.
The chief minister’s directive came a day after the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court took a serious note of increasing cases of dengue in the state capital.
The court directed the Health department, Lucknow Municipal Corporation, additional chief secretary (health) and the chief medical officer to apprise it of the steps taken by them to check the menace of vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and viral fever.
A division bench of Justices Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Saurabh Srivastava was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ashish Kumar Mishra.
"Learned counsel representing these parties shall be appropriately briefed as to what effective steps are being taken/have been taken by the state authorities and the municipal authorities not only for prevention of spread of such vector-borne diseases but also for providing adequate medical facilities to patients suffering from such diseases," the court said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said that 7,134 dengue cases had been recorded in the state. He claimed that this year’s figure was less as compared to the figure reported last year.
Pathak said people should not panic or fear as hospitals were well-equipped to provide treatment and diagnosis. “We have reserved beds for dengue patients,” he said in a statement issued here recently.