LUCKNOW The state government will set up a panel of health experts drawn from premier medical institutes to advise Team-9 on Covid control in Uttar Pradesh.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath made the announcement at a Covid review meeting with Team-9 here.
This will be the first time the state will have such a Covid-focused panel of health experts, said the state government on Monday. There was no such panel to assist Team-11 that was engaged in Covid management in the state during the first wave. The decision was taken on a day on which the state reported 29,192 fresh Covid-19 cases, taking its total case count to 13,42,413 while the death toll reached 13,447 with 288 more fatalities, according to official data.
Reputed medical experts from SGPGIMS (Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences), KGMU (King George’s Medical University), Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University and RML Institute (Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences) will join the advisory panel, said a state government statement.
Team-9, formed to deal with the second wave of Covid pandemic, is a restructured form of Team-11. It consists of the health minister, the medical education minister and several top bureaucrats in the state.
{{/usCountry}}Team-9, formed to deal with the second wave of Covid pandemic, is a restructured form of Team-11. It consists of the health minister, the medical education minister and several top bureaucrats in the state.
{{/usCountry}}At the meeting, Adityanath stressed the need for such an advisory panel for effective control and necessary strategy on Covid-19.
He said the current strain of the coronavirus had constantly been mutating and was 30 to 50 times more infectious than it was in the first wave.
“In some cases, it has been observed that Covid’s TrueNat, antigen or RT-PCR test rule out Covid even though CT scans (of the chest) show that a patient’s lungs are infected. Such a problem has also been observed in people without symptoms,” he added.
He once again asked for setting up of teams like Team-9 at each of the 75 districts and these teams would report daily to the chief minister’s office.
Yogi said that in last 24 hours a total of 38,687 had recovered. So far, 10.43 lakh people recovered from Covid since the first case last year.
Regarding oxygen supply, Yogi said that rail, road, and air routes were being used to transport oxygen. Within two days, 40 tonnes of oxygen from Jamnagar (Gujarat) would come on an Oxygen Express train while a 10-tanker Oxygen Express from Jamshedpur had left for UP.
Rural testing drive deferred by a day
The chief minister asked Team-9 to launch an extensive Covid testing and tracing drive in the villages from May 5. Earlier, the chief minister had announced May 4 as the launch date for the drive. Owing to a delay in the conclusion of the vote count for the panchayat polls, the launch has been deferred by a day.