Uttar Pradesh has created a new benchmark on COVID-19 testing by carrying out 12,77,241 tests to become the third state in carrying out most tests in the country after Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
The striking feature is that UP achieved the first 6-lakh test-mark in four months and the second 6-lakh-mark in just 20 days starting from June 24.
Besides, UP has the distinction of having less positive cases per million. In this category too, it is now at the third place after Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
The was disclosed by Additional Chief Secretaries Awanish Awasthi (Home) and Amit Mohan Prasad (Health) here on Wednesday.
They said after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath fixed a target of 50,000 COVID-19 tests per day by this month end, the number of total tests would increase and UP would certainly reach the second position beating Maharashtra.
“A new testing lab is being set up in Ghaziabad and it will enhance the testing capacity of the state. Besides, new labs will also start in private hospitals,” they said.
Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said that UP also had less number of positive cases per million after Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and efforts were on to beat both the states in this category too.
“UP has the distinction of less (Covid) deaths and positive case rate in the country and it proves that the government is doing its work in controlling the virus,” he added.
The additional chief secretary said that UP was one of the few states in the country to order that asymptomatic COVID-19 patients be admitted to Level-1 hospitals so that they do not spread the virus.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said good results had been achieved through Covid helpdesks set up in large numbers in the state where preliminary health screening with infrared thermometers and pulse oximeters were being done.
“Till date, 52,418 Covid helpdesks have been set up in the state and 21,303 people with symptoms have been detected by them and they were being tested for coronavirus infection,” he said.
Prasad said that during door-to-door surveillance for detecting coronavirus cases till July 13, around 15,82,322 teams visited 4.89 crore houses and screened over 18.73 crore population.
“These teams have pasted stickers and marked every house while they have noted down the people with comorbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and kidney, liver, heart and other ailments. These details will be digitised and used for non-communicable diseases prevention campaigns,” he said.
The door-to-door surveillance in six districts of Meerut division was done between July 2 and 12 and in the rest of the state it commenced on July 5 and will end on Wednesday.
Prasad said that there were 14,628 active cases in the state while 25,743 COVID-19 patients had recovered, including 762 who were discharged from hospitals on Wednesday.
There are 14,635 people in the isolation wards of Covid hospitals and 4,021 in the institutional quarantine.
Prasad said on Tuesday, 45,302 tests were conducted — 2,666 of 5-sample pools and 343 of 10-sample pools. He said in the 5-sample pools, 336 were found positive and in the 10-sample pools, 73 were found positive.
At present around 1.67 lakh health teams have covered 1.21 crore houses in the state and screened over 6.18 crore people in 28,560 containment areas. There are 4,388 hotspots in the state in 883 police station areas covering over 10 lakh houses and 61 lakh population.