Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed the divisional commissioners, municipal commissioners and district collectors to bring down the mortality rate due to Covid-19 in the state. He said the mortality rate should be brought down under any circumstances. In a stern message, he also said that there should be no negligence to trace the contacts and to focus more on the containment zones.

Joint Secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, Lav Agrawal who also attended the video conferencing asked the concerned officials to undertake effective measures in districts where there is high prevalence of Covid-19 cases. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that jumbo facilities on the lines of those set up in Mumbai will be made available in other big cities of Maharashtra on priority basis. Stating that nobody should remain negligent, he said that it is everybody's duty to ensure that second wave of Covid-19 do not hit Maharashtra.

Joint Secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, Lav Agrawal said that 80% contacts of a COVID positive patient should be traced and within 72 hours their tests should be conducted. He said one should not be overconfident even as his antigen test comes out negative and the person should go for an RT-PCR test if symptoms are of Covid-19. He said it is also necessary to take measures to bring down the coronavirus affecting the health workers in Maharashtra which is 21% as compared to the national average of 7%.

Meanwhile. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today inaugurated 400-bed dedicated Covid-19 hospital with state of the art facilities in sector 39 of Gautam Buddh Nagar, Noida. He also reviewed the COVID situation in the district and gave instructions to the officials. It was reported that the hospital with modern facilities is developed with the help of Bill and Milinda Gates Foundation and Tata Trust.

The hospital of Noida, which has a capacity of 400 beds, is the largest state-run COVID facility in the state. Spread across eight floors and equipped with its own diagnostics laboratory and blood bank, it will be the premier facility in the city for COVID patient’s care. Meanwhile the state yesterday witnessed 63 people succumbing to Covid-19 pushing the death toll to 1,981, an official said.

A total of 4,467 fresh cases were reported in the state during the last 24 hours taking the tally of active COVID patients to 44563. The highest 707 cases surfaced in state capital Lucknow followed by 393 in Kanpur. These two cities continue to have the highest number of active cases in the state with 5284 and 4584 cases in Lucknow and Kanpur respectively.