Challenge remains, PM tells officials as district magistrates of GB Nagar, Ghaziabad attend online address

Ghaziabad: Amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with district magistrates of several worst-hit states, including DMs of Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: Amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with district magistrates of several worst-hit states, including DMs of Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad. During the online interaction, the PM lauded the work of the district officials in fight against the pandemic, but he warned that the “challenge remains” as long as the infection is present in the country.

HT Image

The two districts in Uttar Pradesh are among the high caseload districts where total cases since March last year have crossed the 50,000-mark each. According to the state health bulletin, GB Nagar has 4,964 and Ghaziabad has 2,760 active cases as on May 20.

“The Prime Minister stressed on the need to use local experiences and the need to work together as a country. He urged to spread messages on keeping villages Corona-free and following Covid-appropriate behaviour, even when cases are declining. He asked the officials to devise their strategy in a rural and urban specific way and ensure that the rural India is Covid-free,” said a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.

“He emphasized that the methods and strategies in dealing with the pandemic should be dynamic as the virus is expert in mutation and changing the format. He said virus mutation is concerning the youth and children. He stressed the need to boost vaccination drive,” the statement further added.

According to PTI, the PM had video conference with DMs of 60 districts in the country. The two districts of GB Nagar and Ghaziabad were among the selected ones from UP.

Suhas LY, district magistrate of GB Nagar, said that during a presentation given by the Union health secretary, there was mention of Noida with regard to the work done for isolation centres and day-to-day supply of oxygen.

“In mid-April when cases started to surge, there was high demand for oxygen and our authorities started supplies to patients in home isolation. We also set up isolation facilities at our community health centres, besides the work done in this regard by RWAs and apartment owners’ associations. So, this way we promoted public-private partnership and the district’s name was mentioned by the Centre’s health officials during the presentation,” Suhas said.

He said that the PM asked the officials to keep the morale high and stressed on the need to boost and share best practices devised during the pandemic.

“The PM also stressed on the need for future preparedness to deal with any possible third wave. In this connection, we already have 100 paediatric ICU beds at our Child PGI and we have preparedness to come up with 125 of more such beds within two days whenever need arises,” Suhas added.

During his recent visits to both the districts, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath had also directed officials to come up with PICU beds in medical colleges and district hospitals in order to tackle any possible third wave which may also affect children and teenagers.

Ghaziabad district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said that the community health centres (CHCs) in the district have 30 beds each while the primary health centres (PHCs) have five beds each to treat Covid patients.

“Keeping in mind any likelihood of a third wave, we have directed that 50 beds each should be roped in at the CHCs and provision of beds at each PHC should be increased to 15. This is done to provide immediate treatment to patients and if need be, they will thereafter be referred to any other health-care facility. Our focus is now on rural areas,” Pandey said.

“We have also directed that 10 PICU beds should be created at Sanjay Nagar hospital and 12 others should come up at the district women hospital for children up to age of 12 years,” he added.