Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday asked the administration to ensure that no cow, camel or any other prohibited animal was sacrificed on the festival of Bakrid (July 21).

He also said sacrifices must not happen at any public place, adding that not more than 50 people should gather at any place associated with the festival. He issued these instructions to the officials concerned at a Covid-19 review meeting.

“All administrative preparations in view of the festival of Bakrid should be completed. Considering Covid-19, not more than 50 people should gather at any place associated with the festival. Ensure that no cow, camel, or any other prohibited animal is sacrificed. The sacrifice must not take place at any public place and only earmarked places, or private spaces should be used (for sacrifice). Cleanliness should be paid special attention to. Issue detailed guidelines in this regard,” he said.

CM orders action against substandard trauma centres

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday ordered action against all substandard trauma centres that have mushroomed in different parts of the state.

“No one can be allowed to play with public health. The state government is committed to providing quality medical care to people. It has come to the notice of the state government that (there are) trauma centres in the state that lack standards or are below standard. This is unacceptable. Launch an in-depth probe. Mark such centres and act against them,” he said to the officials concerned at the Covid-19 review meeting.

Once again, no district in Uttar Pradesh reported new Covid-19 cases in double digits in the past 24 hours, he said.

There was no fresh Covid-19 case in 55 districts while single-digit cases were reported in the remaining 20 districts.

At present, the state has 1,188 active Covid-19 cases (patients under treatment). As many as 2.18 lakh tests were done in the past 24 hours and 40 people tested positive for Covid-19 while 99 patients recovered during the same period. The positivity rate has remained at 0.02% and the recovery rate is 98.6%

“Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Hathras, Kasganj, Mahoba, Shamli and Shravasti have no active cases,” he said and added that this indicated that the state’s policy of “trace, test, treat, and vaccinate” was working well.

He also said that vaccination was going on well in the state with a total of 4.30 crore doses administered so far, including 3.38 crore first doses. He asked officials to further speed up the vaccination drive.

6,400 PICU, 2,700 NICU beds in place

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the state had put in place a total of 6,400 PICU (paediatric intensive care unit) beds at medical colleges and 2,700 NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) beds at the health department’s hospitals. The work on creating more PICU and NICU beds for taking care of children’s health should be speeded up in all districts, he said. The steps have been taken in view of experts’ predictions of a possible third wave of Covid-19.