Uttarakhand CM holds all-party meeting to discuss COVID-19 situation

With Uttarakhand reporting a record number of single-day COVID-19 fatalities and cases on Saturday, Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat held an all-party meeting here virtually to discuss the situation.

After the meeting that was attended by state Congress chief Pritam Singh and Leader of Opposition in the Uttarakhand Assembly Indira Hridayesh among others, the chief minister said their suggestions to control the situation will be implemented.

The opposition leaders also assured the chief minister of supporting all his endeavours in fighting the pandemic.

Rawat said he will continue to take their suggestions to deal with the pandemic in the future as well.

He said all those who attended the meeting came up with valuable suggestions and a collective effort is needed to overcome the challenge posed by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rawat said there is no shortage of oxygen and additional beds have been put up in various hospitals and COVID care centres to deal with the rising number of cases.

Five hundred beds have been added to the COVID Care Centre at the stadium in Raipur and another 100 at the Coronation Hospital here, he said.

Seventy-five per cent of beds have been reserved in five private hospitals, apart from the Haldwani Medical college, to grapple with the situation, the chief minister said.

Several steps such as weekend curfews in all districts and a closure of all government offices for sanitisation till Wednesday have been taken to break the chain of the virus, he said.

All the political parties welcomed the state government's decision to inoculate everyone in the 18-45 age group against the viral disease for free from May 1.

Uttarakhand recorded its highest single-day rise in COVID fatalities with 81 deaths on Saturday as well as the highest surge in cases with 5,084 people testing positive for the disease.