Uttar Pradesh is key to global fight against Covid-19

PM Narendra Modi taking Covaxin jab

Virendra Singh Rawat

Lucknow / Mar 5, 2021

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is leading the country’s and in turn a global fight against Covid-19 pandemic by vaccinating more than a million health and frontline workers so far.

Having a population of over 220 million, the landlocked state of UP would be placed 6th in a league of nations if it was an independent country.

Since, the Covid-19 vaccination drive took off in India on January 16, the state of UP has been at the forefront of the campaign to defeat the pandemic which rocked the world last year, shutting down businesses and outdoor social life.

UP also tops peer states in terms of conducting the maximum number of coronavirus sample testing of more than 30 million and counting! This accounts for roughly 15 per cent of the total testing in India.

Aspiring to become a US$ trillion economy by 2024, UP was hit hard by the pandemic last year when nearly 4 million of its people, mostly unskilled and semi-skilled workers in other states, returned to the native province after lockdown abruptly shut industries and businesses in March 2020.

The sudden reverse workers’ migration coupled with the rising infections during the early months of March, April and May put the entire state government machinery in an overdrive to ensure the safe return of the ‘migrant’ workers to their native places/villages, and to arrange for their mandatory testing and quarantine, apart from providing them with the exigent livelihood and food support.

Yet, in the backdrop of these overwhelming factors, the cumulative coronavirus infection tally in UP today stands at only about 0.6 million, of which 98 per cent have recovered after treatment at different government and private hospitals.

The deaths tally, unfortunate though, too stand at a comparatively controlled level of about 8,700 in UP although the state is acknowledged as traditionally lacking in quality medical and healthcare infrastructure vis-à-vis other advanced states like Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab etc.

Besides, the state health surveillance teams have, since last year, surveyed over 31 million households across the 75 districts in UP, covering a population of 152 million to detect and report cases of coronavirus and to create awareness among the masses.

The government has claimed it has adequate stock of both Covishield and Covaxin doses apart from other medical supplies viz. vials, syringes etc, for the successive rounds. The state has already started the 3rd phase of the vaccinations to inoculate 60+ aged, apart from 45+ aged having co-morbidities.