NITI Aayog lauds UP’s response to Covid cases in NCR

LUCKNOW: Even though the number of Covid-19 cases is on the rise in western UP districts just like New Delhi and Haryana, the NITI Aayog has lauded Uttar Pradesh for its sustained efforts to contain the pandemic situation.

In an assessment undertaken by the policy think tank last week, experts noted that Uttar Pradesh has managed to keep the positivity rate below 5% despite increase in cases.The weekly average of cases in NCR districts of UP, comprising Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Meerut and Baghpat, has gone up by about 28%. The corresponding figure for New Delhi is 32% and that for NCR, Haryana is 36%.
Expressing concern over the surge in novel coronavirus cases, NITI Ayog officials said that the trend in Delhi and Haryana was serious and called for urgent measures to control the infection, involving the “whole of society, whole of governance, with all possible public health measures”. The experts used data analytics to gauge the situation and caution authorities. The assessment indicated that Delhi has shown the highest peak of daily new cases since June which reflected in its case positivity of about 13%. Likewise, test positivity in Faridabad and Gurugram is around 15%.
UP NCR districts are also showing increasing trends. But unlike Delhi and NCR Haryana, UP has been able to maintain a positivity rate of below 5%.
Health officials in UP pointed out that the credit goes to sustained emphasis on testing. “The state has maintained an average of 1.5 lakh tests per day,” said principal secretary health and family welfare Alok Kumar on Monday. Expressing happiness over the appreciation by NITI Ayog, Kumar said: “it is encouraging but these words in no way mean that the risk of coronavirus spread had declined. People of the state must understand that prevention is in our hands as specific medicine and vaccines are still away.”
Meanwhile, an assessment of state bulletin on Covid-19 showed that while cases in Gautam Budh Nagar, Meerut and Baghpat were rising, those in Ghaziabad kept swinging.
For instance, testing positivity of Gautam Budh Nagar went up from 3% in the October 17-23 week to 5% now. Likewise, Meerut’s positivity rate increased from 2% to 3% now and that for Baghpat has grown from 0.5% to 1% now.
Case positivity rate for Ghaziabad was 5% in the October 17-23 week and has now declined to 4% which is higher than the state average.
Meanwhile, 1,647 new cases in the past 24 hours took the state’s total to 4,99,210. Only three districts recorded more than 100 cases in 24 hours namely: Lucknow (207), Gautam Budh Nagar (163) and Meerut (102).
The number of recoveries took over the new cases once again on Monday. As many as 1,895 discharges from hospital took the number of recovered to 4,69,003. The state also recorded the death of 25 persons taking the total number of casualties to 7,231.