Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that due to the strategy and continuous efforts of his government, novel coronavirus infection was under control in the state but warned that the viral infection was not over yet and therefore even a little carelessness on its prevention could be disastrous. The chief minister was reviewing the Covid situation across the state at a high level meeting convened at Lok Bhawan in Lucknow on Friday.

In the meeting, the chief minister was apprised that 61 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported across the state in the last 24 hours while in the corresponding period, 86 COVID-19 patients had recovered.

At present, the number of active coronavirus cases in the state stands at 994. Besides, the recovery rate of coronavirus infection in the state is 98.6 per cent. The heartening news is that not a single COVID-19 patient has been reported in Aligarh, Balrampur, Basti, Etah, Mahoba, Hathras and Shravasti districts.

The chief minister said that vaccination was an important safeguard in preventing the spread of coronavirus and vaccination should be done with the goal of giving jabs to more and more people of the targeted age group at the earliest. He said that the free registration facility being provided for Covid vaccination through Common Service Centres in villages should be given wide publicity.

It was informed in the meeting that till July 22, over 4,27 crore vaccine doses had been administered. The chief minister was also informed that 211 samples were tested in KGMU, Lucknow and BHU, Varanasi in the last days for the purpose of intensive study and testing regarding the new Delta variant of novel coronavirus but not a single sample confirmed the dangerous variant.

Yogi said that the work of setting up oxygen plants in the state should be carried out at full throttle and directed officials to complete the process by August 15. He said that a minimum of two technicians should be deployed at each oxygen plant.

It was informed in the meeting that so far 548 oxygen plants had been approved in the state while 214 oxygen plants had become functional and so far 280 technicians had been trained. The chief minister directed that all dues should be paid without delay to the dependents of the people dying of COVID-19 and along with this, the job announced for the dependents of the deceased should also be provided at the earliest.