UP government announces reward for making villages, wards COVID-19 free
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced a special drive to make villages and urban wards in the state free of the coronavirus, which has been devastating rural India over the past few months. The campaign is called "Mera Gaon-Corona Mukt Gaon" (My village-Corona free village) and the best-performing villages and wards will be rewarded by the state government.
Focus on strict screening, treatment, and vaccination
The campaign looks to draw participation from the locals in an attempt to bring down the COVID-19 numbers in UP's villages and urban wards. The focus will be on large-scale screening, treatment, and vaccination of the residents. Three best-performing villages and wards will be rewarded through various means, reports say. They will also be granted additional funds for carrying out developmental work.
UP has successfully fought against coronavirus: CM
Adityanath noted that large-scale testing is bringing good results and appreciated the containment measures that have been initiated in the state. "It was being said that after April 24, one lakh cases will come in the state everyday. At present, there are only about 7,000 active cases in the entire state...Uttar Pradesh has successfully fought against Corona," the CM said, according to Hindustan Times.
Monitoring Committees getting over 1 lakh tests done every day
Earlier this month, the state government had constituted Monitoring Committees, that are reportedly getting more than one lakh tests done in rural areas per day. Meanwhile, Additional Chief Secretary (Information), Navneet Sehgal said of the 98,386 revenue villages in the state, complete testing took place in 89,512 villages and infections had been detected in 28,742 villages. Teams were yet to visit around 8,300 villages.
'Will encourage people to follow COVID-19 protocols'
"In this initiative, all public representatives and agencies will encourage people to follow COVID protocols and ensure that others follow them too. Villages in a district declared COVID-free first will be given benefits of some social schemes," Sehgal said, according to The Times of India.
UP sees a decline in new cases, positivity rate
UP, one of the worst-hit states in the second wave of COVID-19 in India, has finally been seeing a declining trend in new cases and positivity rate. On Friday, the government said active cases in the state had come down by 68% since the peak of the outbreak. The state reported 7,735 fresh COVID-19 cases on Friday while active cases stand at 1.06 lakh.
India's coronavirus crisis
India was severely hit by the second wave of COVID-19 with a serious impact on rural parts of the country. As hospitals and cremation grounds remained full, hundreds of bodies were even abandoned in the Ganges. Daily cases in India peaked at 4,14,000 a few weeks ago. The growth has since slowed, with the country reporting 2.57 lakh infections in the past 24 hours.
