Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday asked officials to ramp up coronavirus testing capacity to 50,000 tests a day amid a spike in the number of infections in the state.
At a meeting with senior officials, the chief minister said the scope of RT-PCR tests should be increased to 30,000 tests per day while that of rapid antigen to 18,000 to 20,000 a day, an official release said. He also asked for increasing the sample collection in Varanasi, Ballia, Ghaziabad and Jhansi districts, the release said.
He also directed that a special cleanliness campaign should be carried out on weekends. Adityanath has asked for the door-to-door screening and medical testing of suspected cases.
The move came as the state reported its biggest single-day spike of 1,664 patients in 24 hours on Monday, taking the tally to 38,130. With 21 deaths reported till 6am on Monday, the death toll has risen to 955.
State capital Lucknow reported 196 new cases and three deaths on Monday. It was followed by Ghaziabad with 120 cases, Gautam Buddh Nagar with 90, Kanpur Nagar with 83, Deoria with 69, Varanasi with 67, Meerut with 57, Moradabad with 56, Prayagraj with 48 and Gorakhpur with 47.
Directing officials to ensure a special vigil in Varanasi, Jhansi, Kanpur Nagar, Bareilly, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Ballia and Azamgarh, Adityanath said in the districts reporting higher number of infections, mobile testing vans should be used. He said the use of face masks and social distancing will have to be adopted in daily life for which there is a need to create awareness.
Adityanath directed the health and medical education departments to have a continuous dialogue with chief medical officers (CMOs) and all principals of medical colleges respectively for taking inputs of on different works, the release added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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