Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has inaugurated 300-bed COVID Hospital in Gonda district. This is second such dedicated COVID hospital in state after 400 bedded hospital in Noida which has state of the art facilities. Speaking on the occasion yesterday, the Chief Minister said, while COVID hospital is Noida is providing health facilities to the people in the western part of state, the hospital in Gonda will benefit lakhs of people of eastern region of state. The Chief Minister termed it a big step in fight against Corona Virus.

Meanwhile, presiding over a high-level Unlock review meeting later in the evening Chief Minister directed officials to ensure adequate arrangements for patients in the Covid hospitals and asked them to keep all the equipment including ventilators functional. He directed the officials strictly to ensure that the 48-hour oxygen backup in the hospitals in the Covid hospitals is maintained compulsorily. He said, the High Flow Nasal Canula (HFNC) method of treatment should be continued as it has received good response in the Covid patients. The Chief Minister asked officials to exercise special caution in Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Shahjahanpur and Gorakhpur and strengthen health services in these districts of the state.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh conducted the highest number of Covid tests yesterday with 144802 tests.As state approaches the 50 lakh testing mark till date, Even with such high numbers tested, the positivity rate came 4.2 for this day.Expressing satisfaction on conducting more than 1.44 lakh Covid tests, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed to ramp it further to 1.50 lakh tests per day.

He said that testing is crucial in tackling the menace of Corona.

The CM said that the state government's pro-active policy resulted in much lower death rate in comparison with other states and even countries.He emphasized that in order to achieve minimal death rate due to Covid, more effective strategy should be formulated.

Laying stress on the mass awareness about the protection from Corona, the Chief Minister said that all the modes of communication such as TV, radio, newspapers, public address system and poster-banners should be used for sensitising the people.He also stressed the need of compulsory use of masks and following the two-meter distancing norm.