Covid-19: Revenue minister Suresh Khanna camps in Kashi, Mirzapur, chief secretary in Kanpur

LUCKNOW: With a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases in the state, senior officials and ministers have been dispatched to various districts to review the situation on ground. While revenue minister Suresh Khanna visited Varanasi and Mirzapur on Tuesday, chief secretary R K Tiwari was sent to Kanpur.

Additional chief secretaries for medical education, health and home inspected major Covid hospitals in Lucknow on Tuesday and reported that a 319 bed hospital under KGMU would be ready by the end of this month.

ACS (home) Awanish Awasthi said CM Yogi Adityanath had asked Khanna for spot inspection of health services in Varanasi and Mirzapur divisions. “Many senior officials and ministers are out on inspection in various districts. We also inspected KGMU, SGPGI and RML hospitals in Lucknow on Tuesday morning. The CM has given instructions to increase the number of L-2 and L-3 beds in all districts, especially in sensitive ones,” he said.

The districts where the CM has asked for special precautions are Lucknow, which reported 831 cases on Tuesday, followed by Kanpur Nagar (248), Bareilly (198), Prayagraj (252), Gorakhpur (201) and Varanasi (169).

The CM has said that special attention must be given to protect doctors and police personnel from contracting the infection.

With UP recording more than 5,000 cases in a single day, the highest so far, Yogi has stressed on the importance of awareness programmes. Awasthi said in rural areas, awareness through word of mouth would play a crucial role in ensuring that people wore masks and maintained social distancing.

“Various modes of publicity like television, newspapers, banners and posters should be used to underline the importance of sanitation drives and Covid protocols,” Awasthi said.

Sanjeevani, the online OPD service of the central government, should be well publicised so that maximum people can benefit from the facility, the CM said.

The CM has stressed on improving surveillance in the state, with a focus on contact tracing and door-to-door surveys. On Tuesday, he said that the Integrated Command and Control Centre should maintain regular communication with the home isolated patients to get feedback about their condition.

Meanwhile, Rs 361.93 crore has been distributed under various heads from the Rs 429.50 crore Covid care fund. Awasthi said Rs 198.84 crore of the total amount has come from public contributions.