UP govt to provide basic coronavirus medical training to public

With the number of coronavirus patients identified in Uttar Pradesh touching 1,176, the state has decided to provide primary medical care training to people for protection against the disease.

Chairing a review meeting in Lucknow, the chief minister instructed officials to prepare an action plan under which “master trainers” would be deployed to give rudimentary medical care training to the general public.

Of the 1,176 cases across 52 districts in UP, 129 have been discharged, while 17 persons died, thus leaving 1,030 active cases in the state, UP medical, health and family welfare principal secretary Amit Mohan Prasad said here this evening.

Meanwhile, three new districts - Mau, Etah and Sultanpur, have joined the league of UP districts reporting coronavirus cases.

However, eight districts have so far been declared free of coronavirus after all the patients were successfully treated and there were no instances of new cases. These include Hathras, Maharajganj, Pilibhit, Bareilly, Prayagraj (Allahabad) etc.

“If no new cases are reported in 14 days, the corona red zone is declared as orange zone. If no new cases emerge in total 28 days, the zone is declared as green. However, the area is subjected to unabated monitoring and sample testing to ensure there is no spread of the disease,” he said.

Meanwhile, the state government has ramped up daily sample testing to more than 3,000 with a total of 3,268 samples tested yesterday. “With this, we have cumulatively tested more than 32,000 samples so far in the state,” Prasad informed.

He said the instance of the disease was highest in the 21-40 year age category with more than 48 per cent of the total cases in UP, followed by 41-60 year, 0-20 year and 61+ year categories reporting about 24 per cent, 19 per cent and 9 per cent cases respectively.

“The percentage of male patients in UP is 78 per cent compared to female at 22 per cent,” he added.

So far, the state government has arranged for 10,000 isolation beds for coronavirus patients and 15,000 facility quarantine beds for suspected and contact cases across the state.

 

“Besides, we are in the process of identifying nearly 10,000 beds in the proposed attached facilities to house asymptomatic cases if the existing government facilities get exhausted. These attached facilities would be temporary taken on rent near the big government hospitals treating covid-19 patients,” he said.

Nearly 75 per cent of the coronavirus patients in UP have been asymptomatic that is the patients do not experience any known symptoms of disease, but are found to be active in sample testing.

The state has received rapid testing kits from the Centre, which were being used for the purpose of surveillance and not for regular sample testing, such as in Noida.