Uttar Pradesh government gears up for third COVID-19 wave, launches state-wide campaign

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New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government is gearing up to deal with the possible third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with the launch of a state-wide special communicable disease control campaign that will go on till July 31.

As part of this campaign, the government will sensitize people regarding infectious diseases and create awareness about various preventive measures.

The government’s ‘Dastak’ campaign will run from July 12 to 25 to control meningitis. In this campaign, monitoring committees will go from door to door to assist the front-line workers ASHA and Anganwadi workers.

The government has said it will provide free medicine kits for children for the treatment of various diseases including COVID-19. It claimed that the kits will be given to more than 50 lakh children.

71 lakh medical kits will be given to adults free of cost, it added.

Urban development, Panchayati Raj and village development, animal husbandry, education, agriculture, empowerment of persons with disabilities, irrigation, information and public relations departments, medical and health and medical education departments will prepare a special action plan for the one month campaign.

The number of health centers operating in the state will be increased from about 18,000 to about 30,000.

The secondary education department will also run a communicable disease awareness campaign till July 31. All related activities will be conducted through WhatsApp groups having teachers and students.

Essay, painting, poster, slogan and quiz competitions will be organised for creating awareness.

Though no confirmed case of the ‘delta plus’ variant of COVID-19 has been reported, the state government said it is monitoring the situation closely.

Genome sequencing of samples is being done in KGMU Lucknow and Varanasi BHU and will soon be done in other districts including Gautam Budh Nagar, the government said.

The government further said that it has tested 5,81,11,746 samples for COVID-19, the highest by any state in a country.

In the last 24 hours, 2,67,658 samples were tested, in which 163 positive cases were found, while 260 were discharged.

The active cases in UP have come down from 3000 to 2687. The recovery rate has increased to 98.5 percent.

The government also said that the state is becoming self-sufficient in oxygen availability, with 125 new oxygen plants that have been installed and it is working to raise this number to 528.

Regarding the vaccination drive, the government said that in June, more than one crore people were inoculated.