Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday claimed that the COVID-19 recovery rate in the state was the best in the country and that the World Health Organisation had praised the state's coronavirus pandemic management efforts.
"Active cases in the state are around 2,000, hospitals have below 500 positive cases and the recovery rate is the best in the country. Due to our constant efforts, the WHO also praised UP's COVID-19 management," the chief minister said while replying to the debate on motion of thanks to the Governor's address to the joint sitting of the UP Legislature.
He said the WHO had in fact honoured the 24 crore people of the state and every donor of the coronavirus relief fund.
Lauding the people's representatives, non-governmental organisations, donors and the common people, the chief minister said, "The government was able to fight the battle against the pandemic with the active support of all the MLAs who accepted the salary cut, suspension of Vidhyak Nidhi and many traders, businessmen and common people came forward to donate for the Covid Relief Fund."
Yogi Adityanath said so far over three crore Covid tests had been conducted in the state and even today 1.5 lakh tests were being conducted daily. He said the government took the daily Covid tests from 2,000 to two lakh per day.
Referring to the poor infrastructure the state had to deal with the pandemic, the chief minister said, "The first coronavirus infection was detected in Agra and he was referred to Delhi. There was no ICU bed in state hospitals and well equipped life support ambulances and there was no ventilator in 36 district hospitals."
The chief minister said as the government developed the infrastructure and got a firm grip over the situation, life support ambulances were made available for the common people and contact tracing was stepped up to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
He said the CM Helpline remained in touch with every COVID-19 patient and regular calls were made to them.
Countering the charge of the opposition about a scam in procurement of PPE kits and oximeters, the chief minister said, "This is entirely baseless as the quality control test of kits was conducted by agencies like IIT-Kanpur and Ordinance Factory nominated by the Union government."
The chief minister added that the quality control test of PPE kits was also conducted by King George's Medical University before they were sent to the doctors and paramedical staff.
He said at the time of the coronavirus outbreak, the price of the PPE kit was Rs 15,000 and later it was reduced to Rs 250-500 and it was an issue of gap between demand and supply rather than any irregularity.
The chief minister asserted that there was no scope for corruption in procurement of PPE kits. He said oximeters of different quality were available in the market costing between Rs 11,000 to Rs 50,000. He said UP was on top in manufacture of sanitiser and the commodity was supplied to 27 states.
The chief minister pointed out that a leader of the ruling party in Delhi state had also made this allegation that the government bought the PPE kits at exorbitant prices of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 but later that leader stopped talking about this issue.
Yogi Adityanath said, "Uttar Pradesh is the first state to not only announce maintenance allowance for workers of organised and unorganised sectors like street vendors and rickshaw pullers but also make it available to them during the emergency (COVID-19)."
The chief minister also pointed out that the state government made arrangements for the evacuation of 12,000 students of UP who were stranded in Kota after the lockdown was imposed.