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LUCKNOW: With the Covid-19 second wave continuing its lethal run, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to set up a 1,000-bed hospital in Lucknow, which recorded 6,598 cases in the last 24 hours.
Lucknow MP and Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh has pitched in to stem the crisis in his constituency and directed Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to help set up the facility. The Defence Expo-2020 site at Vrindavan Yojana next to Shaheed Path, has been identified for this project.
Sources said, DRDO teams reached the state capital late Friday and hit the ground running to set up at least three makeshift hospitals. The government also swiftly acquired the Haj House on Kanpur Road and Golden Blossom Resort on Faizabad Road for converting them into temporary Covid hospitals. Another 16 private hospitals have agreed to treat Covid patients, giving an additional 450 beds, of which 40 have ICU facilities.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath
LUCKNOW: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday dismissed speculations on the possibility of lockdown in the state despite the surge in Covid-19 cases.
“We will neither impose lockdown nor let people die in misery,” the CM said, directing officials to take over private testing labs, if required, and pay adequate amounts to ensure there is no delay in test results.
“The government should also take over private hospitals and medical colleges, if necessary, to overcome any shortcomings,” he added.
The directives were issued after the CM office received several complaints about delay in test reports and that some private labs were not carrying out tests at all. The CM said more private labs should be roped in to increase RT-PCR tests to account for at least 70% of the total tests. “Capacity of RT-PCR testing labs should be increased so that the state can carry out at least 1.5 lakh RT-PCR tests per day in the coming days. TrueNat machines should a