Readying paediatric ICU beds to tackle possible third wave of Covid-19: Adityanath

Noida: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday announced that all districts in the state will be equipped with adequate paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) beds to provide exclusive care and treatment to children needing treatment for the coronavirus disease

Noida: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday announced that all districts in the state will be equipped with adequate paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) beds to provide exclusive care and treatment to children needing treatment for the coronavirus disease. The CM’s statement comes in the wake of predictions that a third wave of Covid-19 is possible which will likely affect children.

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Addressing the media at the NTPC Power Management Institute in Noida’s Sector 16A, Adityanath said his government is all set to tackle the new wave, like the state handled encephalitis cases in the state. “From 1977 to 2017, the average annual fatalities due to encephalitis were nearly 1,500. But, it was due to proper coordination between all departments concerned that the same have been reduced now to double digits. The training of health officials for working in PICUs has already begun and very soon, all government hospitals, community health centres (CHCs) and primary health centres (PHCs) will have an adequate number of PICU beds,” he said.

Replying to a query about “inaccessibility” of Co-WIN portal, especially in rural areas, the CM said that the government has decided to inoculate people in rural areas through common service centres (CSCs). “The staff of these CHCs will go door-to-door and compile their details with the district vaccination department, so as to set up a vaccination centre in their vicinity. It can be CHCs, PHCs, schools, panchayat buildings or any public place – which have waiting, vaccination and observation rooms,” the CM said.

He also said that pre-bids have already been floated to ensure 100% vaccine coverage in the state. “As many as six companies have turned up with some queries, which are being replied to by officials concerned. We’ve so far given over 1.5 crore doses of vaccines in the first and second jabs to beneficiaries. Compliance of the central government’s directions in inoculating people over 45 years of age has also yielded positive results, as wastage of vaccines has now reduced to two-three per cent, as compared to 22% wastage during the drive of healthcare workers. From Monday, a massive vaccination drive for people of 18 to 44 years will begin in 22 districts,” he said.

He added that taking serious note of post-Covid diseases such as black fungus that damage the eyes, the health department has been asked to provide all essential drugs to every hospital in the state.

Laying stress on the need to create awareness about testing, sanitisation and social distancing among people in rural areas, Adityanath said that during his visits to remote villages since May 7 in many districts, it was found that people are hesitant to go to CHCs and PHCs for Covid-19 testing. “The job of rapid response teams (RRT) begins here and they have adroitly handled the situation there. The state has 58,055 village panchayats and over 1,200 wards for over one lakh revenue villages. The vigilance committee of the respective area screens the patients with ILI symptoms, besides asymptomatic ones. They make their list and provide it to the integrated Covid command centre (ICCC) in their respective district headquarters, as well as to the people’s representative. On the basis of this list, the RRT conducts testing in those areas. The ICCC sends the updated details of testing, home isolation, hospitalisation to the CM helpline thrice a day,” he said.

He said that apart from conducting door-to-door rapid antigen testing, they have also distributed over three lakh medical kits, comprising all essential medicines, in these areas. “As a result of this, while the case positivity rate (CPR) of the state has come down to five per cent from 22%, the case fatality rate (CFR) is around one per cent. In terms of testing, UP leads with 4.5 crore testing – which is much ahead of three crore testing in Maharashtra. It is the effort of our officials that despite having a huge population – about whom the experts had predicted that there would be nearly one lakh fresh caseload every day mid-April to mid-May, UP recorded only 10,600 cases on May 16. Till date, we have 1.63 lakh active cases, out of which only 42,000 are in hospitals. The remaining are under home isolation and are being monitored by the doctors,” he said.

Giving the details of beds in the state, the chief minister said that at present the state has 80,000 beds, including 72,000 in government hospitals. “Besides, we have 2,200 ambulances and 350 life-saving ambulances for coronavirus disease patients,” he added.