Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to conduct Covid testing by rapid antigen method after house-to-house surveillance during state-wide Special Cleanliness Campaign that started on July 10 and would continue till July 12.
He said the campaign had been launched to control the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases as well as for creating awareness towards public health.
Presiding over a high level Unlock meeting at Lok Bhawan here on Friday, Yogi said that extensive cleanliness and sanitation activities should be taken up during the campaign. He asked the ministers in-charge to monitor the campaign in their respective districts.
The chief minister asked Urban Development, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and other departments to coordinate in the cleanliness campaign. He said that spray of anti-larva chemicals, fogging and removal of water-logging should be ensured during the campaign.
Directing officials to ramp up Covid testing, the chief minister said that more testing should be done by rapid antigen testing method. He said that the number of lab technicians should be increased and more than 15,000 rapid action antigen tests per day should be attempted during the campaign period.
He also laid stress on perfect coordination between surveillance teams and ambulance services so that the patients could be sent to hospitals at the earliest.
The chief minister directed officials to take up medical screening, surveillance activities and rapid action antigen testing on mission mode.
The chief minister also directed officials to send medical experts to Kanpur Nagar, Jhansi and Varanasi to strengthen the health services there. “The teams should camp there and contribute to the existing medical services,” he said.
The chief minister said that as per government provisions, industrial activities may be continued as before and works of MNREGA schemes, major construction projects including that of expressway should continue during the restriction period.
He said the air and train services would continue and asked officials to ensure that passengers did not face problems in travelling. He asked officials to arrange for buses at railway stations for the convenience of the passengers.
Yogi said that wide publicity should be made to create awareness among the people about prevention from coronavirus and other communicable diseases. He said mass awareness was a must about the use of masks, observance of social distancing and avoidance of unnecessary movement from house.
“Posters, banners and public address systems may be used at public places and crossings for publicity campaigns,” he said.
Those present in the meeting included Medical Education Minister Suresh Khanna, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh, Chief Secretary RK Tiwari, Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner Alok Tandon, Agriculture Production Commissioner Alok Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Information) Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Sanjeev Mittal, Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) Renuka Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister SP Goyal, Director General of Police HC Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary (Medical Education) Rajneesh Dubey, Additional Chief Secretary (Rural Development and  Panchayati Raj) Manoj Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Sanjay Prasad, Secretary to Chief Minister Alok Kumar and other senior officers.