The State requires one lakh doses of Covid vaccine per day. Considering this, the state government has written to the Centre seeking a permit if it can directly import vaccine. Stating this, chief secretary Om Prakash also said that starting treatment as soon as Covid symptoms appear will check the number of cases and fatalities.

Addressing the media, he said that a committee has been formed to monitor hospitals to check if people are using ICU despite not needing it. He said that considering the number of oxygen supported and ICU beds in Uttarakhand, the state needs 165.18 metric tonnes of oxygen daily compared to which the Centre has allocated 183 metric tonnes of oxygen for the state.

About 130 metric tonnes of oxygen is used for the beds presently occupied while the state receives 126 metric tonnes daily while five metric tonnes of oxygen is received from oxygen plants in hospitals. Four more metric tonnes of oxygen will be available daily from the plants being set up in hospitals, he said. The state will soon start mobile testing vans which will test people in remote rural areas, said the chief secretary.

Health secretary Amit Singh Negi said that the number of oxygen supported beds has increased from 673 in March 2020 to more than 5,500 at present. Similarly, the number of ICU beds increased from 216 in March 2020 to 1,390 at present. During the same period, the number of ventilators increased from 116 to 876, the number of oxygen cylinders increased from 1,193 to 9,900, the number of oxygen concentrators increased from 275 to 1,293 while the number of testing labs increased from one to 10 government labs and 26 private labs.

Secretary in-charge Pankaj Pandey said that considering the time taken between testing and report, the state government had decided that those getting tested for Covid will be provided medicines immediately without waiting for the test result.

This system has been implemented in all districts with the required kits being distributed, he averred.