Even as the country witnessed a spike in novel coronavirus positive cases, Uttar Pradesh created a record of sorts by carrying out 1.78 lakh Covid tests on Tuesday and started mapping of fresh cases in 15 COVID-19 prone districts of the state from Wednesday.
Additional Chief Secretary (health) Amit Mohan Prasad said on Wednesday that UP carried out the highest ever 1,78,549 Covid tests in a day on Tuesday and with this 1,84,70,887 samples were tested in the state so far, the highest by any state in the country.
“Of these Covid tests, 72,808 were by RT-PCR,” he said, adding that now the UP government had decided to go for a ratio of 40:60 in tests with 40 percent RT-PCR tests and rest 60 percent by rapid antigen and TrueNat methods.
Earlier one-third tests were by RT-PCR method and the rest two-thirds by rapid antigen kits.
At present, there are 24,876 coronavirus active cases in the state out of which 11,718 are in home isolation, 2,378 in private hospitals and the rest in government-run Covid hospitals.
Meanwhile, in a fresh decision, the UP government has asked 15 coronavirus-prone districts to go for mapping of the fresh cases detected between November 11 and 25.
“RT-PCR testing will be carried out in a random manner to break the coronavirus chain,” he said.
The 15 districts where mapping of the fresh cases has been started are Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Prayagraj, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Meerut, Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh, Jhansi, Agra, Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar.
Prasad said the state government had also re-defined the containment areas after fresh cases started to spike. Now a single coronavirus positive case would have a containment area of 50 metres radius while in the case of cluster, it would be 100 metre radius.
Meanwhile, expressing satisfaction over more than 1.78 lakh Covid tests being conducted per day in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to carry on the testing actively. “Testing has an important role in breaking the COVID-19 infection chain,” he said.
The chief minister, who was presiding over an unlock review meeting at his official residence here, also stressed on maintaining vigilance and caution in view of a spike in COVID-19 cases across the country.
Asking officials to continuously make people aware about the precautions to be taken against COVID-19, the chief minister said that it should also be ensured that the public address systems were used to full capacity.
The use of masks should be mandatory and there should be full attention on social distancing. People should also be asked not to gather in crowds, he said.
The chief minister also directed officials to take effective enforcement action to ensure the use of masks.
Giving instructions to maintain an effective system of prevention and treatment of COVID-19, the chief minister said that to improve the recovery rate of Lucknow, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Meerut and Ghaziabad districts, the medical system should be strengthened there, contact tracing should also done effectively and the Integrated Command and Control Centre should work actively.
The chief minister also said that availability of medicines and medical equipment should be ensured in all the Covid hospitals along with.
Reviewing the availability of oxygen, he directed officials to ensure that hospitals had at least 48 hours’ oxygen backup.
Assessing the need for additional ICU beds, Yogi directed officials to increase the beds as per requirement.
He said arrangements should also be made to keep medical and security force personnel safe from infection and it should also be ensured that police personnel used masks and gloves.
The chief minister also asked officials to impart Covid training to paramedical staff.