Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), May 13 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday visited Agra, Mathura and Aligarh districts to review the state of preparedness and the existing arrangements for containing the Covid-19 pandemic, which is spreading in an alarming rate in the region for the past 20 days.

As part of his trip, the Chief Minister also visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and assured all possible help, including supply of oxygen and Remdesivir injections to JNMC.

Despite assurances of help from the state government to the AMU in dealing with the pandemic, the rising death toll has cast an unnerving shadow on the campus graveyard.

With at least three-dozen serving and retired AMU employees dying in the past few weeks due to Covid, old graves are now being reportedly dug up to bury the dead.

The AMU campus has seen more deaths in the past few weeks than in the entire year. The alarming death toll has sent shock-waves leading to apprehensions that a deadlier 'AMU strain' of the virus is wreaking havoc.

Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor has written to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) so that all aspects can be studied through genome sequencing.

During his visit to Aligarh on Thursday, Adityanath took stock of the situation, and offered condolences to the bereaved families.

The Chief Minister held a meeting with the top officials of the university, VC Tariq Mansoor; Abdul Hamid (IPS), Registrar; Shahid A Siddiqui, Principal, JNMC; Rakesh Bhargava, Dean, Faculty of Medicine; and Amjad Ali Rizvi, Officiating Medical Superintendent.

Mansoor informed the Chief Minister that JNMC needed continuous supply of oxygen and Remdesivir urgently.

The medical college staff comprising doctors, nurses and paramedics have been working relentlessly with dedication, and many of them contracted Covid in the line of duty while serving the patients, the Chief Minister was informed, who in turn saluted the JNMC doctors and staff for their sincerity and dedication.

Mansoor also elaborated that while all efforts are being made to tackle the present second wave of the pandemic, "we have to be prepared for a possible third wave that is estimated to affect children the most".

The Vice-Chancellor said that JNMC will work closely with the state and the Union governments to augment the health infrastructure of JNMC and add to its capacity in critical areas such as pediatric ICUs, so as to provide better medical care to everyone, especially children.

He said that the university has started telemedicine services which will be strengthened further.

Explaining the reasons for the high mortality rate in the second wave, JNMC hospital officials said that non-vaccination, comorbidity, and late admission to the medical college led to an increase in fatalities.

Adityanath on Thursday also visited the Covid command centres, district hospitals, and the SN Medical College in Agra.

In Mathura, he interacted with the patients and others who had recovered from the disease.

Interacting with mediapersons, the Chief Minister said the testing facilities have been expanded, oxygen supply to the hospitals increased, while the number of beds has also gone up significantly. He appealed to the people to cooperate with the government efforts and follow the Covid guidelines.