Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked his administration to ensure that no government or private hospital denies admission to any Covid-19 patient if a bed is available, officials said. If a bed is not available in a government hospital, the patient should be sent to a private hospital, and if a patient referred by a government hospital is unable to bear the expenses of the private hospital, the state government will cover the cost of treatment based on the rates approved under the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme, the UP government​ said on Sunday.

Battered by the second wave of the pandemic, UP on Sunday reported 35,614 new cases in a 24-hour period, pushing the active caseload up to 2,97,616. The death toll climbed to 11,165 following 208 fatalities.

“The chief minister has given instructions that no hospital will return a patient. If there is no bed in a government hospital, then a patient will be sent to a private hospital and the state government will bear the entire expenses,” said Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary (information) Navneet Sehgal.

Instructions have been given for setting up of oxygen plants in each hospital of the state with a capacity of more than 100 beds and machines have started coming in at 39 hospitals, said Sehgal. The process of setting up oxygen plants at 855 community health centres in the state at a cost of Rs 488 crore has also started, he added. Several hospitals across the country have over the past few days repeatedly either run out for some time or come close to running out of oxygen that can help patients with Covid-19 who need assistance with their breathing to stay alive. The availability of the antiviral remdesivir in the treatment of patients will also be ensured in private hospitals, said Sehgal. He added that due to the efforts of the state government, the infection rate has come down.

Sehgal said that medicines and oxygen will be provided on time to patients in home isolation.

The state is also trying to bolster the vaccination exercise in a bid to curb the spread of Covid. Additional chief secretary (medical and health) Amit Mohan Prasad appealed to the people of UP that those above 45 years of age should get both doses of vaccine as soon as possible. All people above the age of 18 will become eligible for vaccination from May 1. So far 97,79,846 people in UP have been given the first dose of a vaccine and of these 19,97,363 people have also taken a second dose. Prasad said that private labs and hospitals can charge Rs 250 for an antigen examination, Rs 700 is the charge for an RT-PCR test at a hospital and Rs 900 for home sample collection, Rs 1,250 for a TrueNat test and Rs 1,450 for its home sample collection. He also informed that if those who are in home isolation want to consult a doctor, they can contact the helplines 18001805146 and 18001805145.