WHO lauds Uttar Pradesh's Covid-19 management, says state government

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], November 17 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh has been lauded for its Covid-19 management strategy by the global health body, World Health Organization (WHO), the state government said on Tuesday.
An official release by the Yogi Adityanath government quoted WHO Country Representative by Roderico Ofrin who said the state's strategic response of increasing contact tracing efforts to mitigate coronavirus spread is exemplary.
The WHO's official appreciated the chief minister and the Uttar Pradesh state government for tracing high-risk contacts and setting a good example for the rest of the country to follow, the government press release said.
"Despite being the most populated state in the country, the state government in collaboration with the WHO has been successful enough in minimizing the surge of Covid-19 in the state. The Uttar Pradesh government, together with the WHO, had initiated a large-scale contact tracing process to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection," the state government release said.
The Uttar Pradesh government has for the upcoming Chhath Puja already issued alerts across all the districts for special precautions keeping in mind Covid-safety protocol, the release said.
This level of high-risk contact tracing of positive Covid-19 patients was achieved through 70,000 healthcare workers that worked across the state, said State Development Officer of Uttar Pradesh, Dr Vikasendu Aggarwal.
"The people who had come in direct contact with Covid-19 patients have actively got themselves contact traced. Hence, the pace of Covid-19 growth in the state has slowed down. The WHO medical officials had supervised the contact tracing process being done by the UP government. The WHO has praised the government's efforts." Aggarwal added.
The National Public Health Department's Monitoring Project of the UP government, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, deployed 800 medical officers in 75 districts for prevention of COVID-19 infection, which examined 58,000 people between August 1 to August 14.
WHO's field monitoring advisor, Ajay Srivastava said that due to fear of COVID-19 infection, people were hiding health information. In such a situation, the team of medical officers generated awareness of the pandemic.
Madhup Bajpai, regional team leader, Uttar Pradesh Region, WHO-NPSP (National Police Surveillance Project), said that 93 per cent of the high-risk contacts were traced and screened. However, contact tracing of seven per cent of the infected patients was not successful. At the same time, there were 17 districts where 10 percent of the high-risk people could not get the contact test. Later, contact testing and awareness programs were started. The government deployed more teams to strengthen surveillance activities in high-case load districts. (ANI)