With the second wave of COVID-19 receding from the state, the Uttar Pradesh government has directed a special team of health experts to prepare elaborate guidelines for reopening of secondary schools and higher educational institutions.
A special team headed by the director of Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences has swung into action to prepare special Covid preventive guidelines in compliance with Covid appropriate behaviour.
All students of secondary schools, colleges and universities will attend their respective institutions on the occasion of Independence Day on August 15 after which their physical classes will commence from August 16.
The educational institutions will have to ensure availability of sanitation facilities like hand wash, thermal scanning, pulse oximeter and other requisite medical aid.
Taming the deadly second wave of the COVID-19, out of the 2,54,442 samples tested in the last 24 hours, merely 58 tested positive for coronavirus infection across the state. In the same period, 49 COVID-19 patients also recovered.
“The active caseload in UP has come down to 593 from a high of 3,10,783 in April, pushing the recovery rate up to 98.6 per cent, while the percentage of active cases as against the total confirmed cases is just 0.1 per cent,,” Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal said on Sunday.
He said ramping up the daily tests to detect the coronavirus infection had helped in the fight against the second wave. He said true to the spirit of the 'trace, test, and treat' policy, with as many as 6,74,76,221 tests, Uttar Pradesh had emerged as a leader in Covid testing.
The cumulative number of vaccine doses administered in UP exceeds 5.35 crore.
“Despite its large population density, Uttar Pradesh is setting new daily records in Covid vaccination while states like Punjab, Rajasthan and Chandigarh amongst others have ‘underutilised’ the doses of Covid vaccines that have been supplied to them,” Sehgal said.