Lucknow, May 27 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the state has now moved into a Covid 'safe zone'.
In a statement, he said that the state has proved the critics wrong and managed to "successfully blunt" the surge through the trace, test and treat method.
"We are now preparing for a probable third wave. In Deoria, we will work on encephalitis control along with Covid care. The rainy season, which triggers encephalitis is just months away. Gorakhpur-Basti divisions previously bore the brunt of the scourge. We have reduced the encephalitis death rate by 95 per cent and now there are hundreds of health wellness and encephalitis treatment centres, which will help control the disease," he said.
The Chief Minister added that paediatric ICUs (PICU) in district hospitals and mini-PICU in community health centres were being operationalised.
A new 20-bed PICU has been planned for Deoria and a mini-PICU in the Laar assembly segment.
Adityanath who is visiting various districts to review Covid management programmes, has asked the village heads to quarantine anyone who shows symptoms of the virus.
"Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the state with the most Covid tests and at the vanguard of the vaccination campaign. Till Wednesday, we have conducted 48.7 million corona tests," he said.
The Chief Minister further said that all districts in the state are being made self-sufficient in terms of oxygen and more than 300 oxygen plants are being set up.
Adityanath also stressed on the need to support work being done by surveillance committees.
The government, he said, had begun a 'Mera Gaon, Corona Mukt Gaon' initiative to ensure rural areas were free of Covid-19.
For this, monitoring committees were being strengthened to carry out identification of patients, giving them medicine kits and ensuring their quarantine.
He said that the government will also vaccinate more than the average number of people in the 45+ age group in the coming month.
He encouraged people to get vaccinated and tested for the virus.
"Vaccination is our security shield against Covid-19 and vaccines are being administered for free by the government."
The Chief Minister also gave instruction on sanitation during the rainy season to control the spread of encephalitis.