Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that the dry run for COVID-19 vaccination was underway in the state and it was possible that the vaccination would commence from Makar Sankranti.
“The dry run of Covid vaccination process is underway in Lucknow and it will be held in the entire state on January 5. The vaccination will commence near Makar Sankranti,” he said. Laying the foundation stone of the multi-storey Lawyers Bhawan at the collectorate in Gorakhpur on Saturday, Yogi Adityanath said that the country, under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was set to wipe out the deadly novel coronavirus from the country.
He also said that UP had done a condemnable job in controlling COVID-19 and even the World Health Organisation (WHO) had appreciated the government’s efforts.
“The number of active coronavirus positive cases was 68,000 two months back and now there are just 13,000 active cases in the state. The recovery rate of 97 per cent is the best in the country.... We will win the fight against this pandemic,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state government on Saturday commenced its preparation for the COVID-19 vaccination in UP by conducting dry runs in six hospitals in the state capital.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said here on Saturday that dry run of vaccination preparation in the state capital was successful and it took note of any lapses which could arise during the actual vaccination drive.
In Lucknow, the dry run was held at Mall and Malihabad community health centres, Sahara Hospital, King George’s Medical University, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Sanjay Gandhi Post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences.
Prasad said on January 5, a similar dry run would be held at six places each, three rural and three urban, in all the 75 districts of the state.
He said the government was taking all steps to make foolproof arrangements for the vaccination.
“The government has ordered installation of CCTV cameras in all the vaccination storage rooms and at other places where the process would be completed,” he said.
Meanwhile, fresh cases of COVID-19 further came down to 728 on Saturday and the recovery percentage went up further to 96.351 per cent. There are still 13,316 active coronavirus cases in the state out of which 5,518 are in home isolation, 1,305 in private hospitals and the rest in government-run Covid hospitals.
A total of 5,65,731 COVID-19 patients have recovered in the state while the total casualty stands at 8,387 with the case fatality rate coming down to 1.42 per cent. After six months, the number of casualties in a day came down to just eight on Saturday.
Till date over 5.01 lakh health teams have covered 3.10 crores houses under surveillance and have checked the health of over 15.08 crore people. On Friday, the labs conducted 1,29,111 lakh Covid sample tests and now the number of total tests in the state has gone up to 2,42,16,483, the highest in the country.
The UP government has decided to re-start the Mukhya Mantri Arogya Mela from January 10 in all the government hospitals where people will get non-Covid treatment.