Discharge rate doubles as UP adopts new Covid plan

LUCKNOW: The number of Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals doubled a day after Uttar Pradesh government’s new discharge policy became effective. As many as 626 persons were sent home in 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries to 10,995. The number is about twice the number of patients discharged from hospitals last week.
The trend led to a jump of about 2% in recoveries.“We are happy to inform 626 persons were discharged in 24 hours, taking the total to 10,995. With this, the state’s overall recovery rate has increased to 62%,” said additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad.
As per the new policy announced on Saturday, “An asymptomatic Covid-19 patient will be discharged from the hospital without any test 10 days after being diagnosed with the disease.” Till now, barring a few exceptions, patients irrespective of symptoms were kept in the hospital for 14 days and discharged only after two consecutive Covid-19 tests came negative.
“Those with mild, moderate and severe symptoms will be allowed to go after a minimum 12 days of hospital stay provided they do not show any symptoms for three consecutive days and the test comes negative,” the policy order said.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 death toll for Uttar Pradesh reached 550 on Sunday with 21 fatalities in 24 hours. According to the Covid bulletin, three deaths took place in Kanpur Nagar, two each in Meerut,Moradabad, Gorakhpur and Etawah, and one each in Ghaziabad, Hapur, Siddharthanagar, Bijnor, Mathura, Muzaffarnagar, Rae Bareli, Budaun, Jhansi and Farrukhabad.
Agra tops list of Covid casualties with 79 entries till date followed by Meerut where 75 deaths have been reported so far. Ghaziabad with 43 deaths accounts for the third highest burden of deaths in the state.
The state also recorded 596 fresh cases, taking the overall tally to 17,833. Of the new cases, Ghaziabad recorded maximum of 56 cases, while neighbouring Gautam Budh Nagar saw 49 cases. Kanpur Nagarstood third with 36 entries. “Of the total, only 6,186 were cases of active infection,” Prasad said
More robust surveillance plan soon
In wake of the changing form of the Covid19 challenge in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government will be launching a revised and more robust surveillance strategy soon. “As per instructions given by the CM, we are revising our surveillance strategy and we hope to launch it on Tuesday,” said additional chief secretary, Amit Mohan Prasad. Earlier, the CM had directed the state health department to increase the number of surveillance teams and ramp usCovid testing to ensure that the state stays two steps ahead of the pandemic. He had also directed increasing the number of beds and keeping track of available resources on daily basis.