Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adiayanath on Monday said the state had already set up more than 5900 pediatric ICU (intensive care unit) beds in medical colleges in view of the possible third wave of Covid-19 and the more virulent Delta-Plus coronavirus variant.

Soon, 11 more RT-PCR test labs would be operational, taking the total number of the districts with RT-PCR labs to 45, he said at a high-level Covid-19 review meeting here.

The remaining 30 districts, too, would have the labs in the next three to four months, he said.

“The state needs to be alert considering the Delta-Plus variant (is) being classified by experts as more virulent than the previous coronavirus variants. Eleven states in the country have already reported Delta-Plus infections. UP needs to be well prepared in advance to tackle it according to the recommendations of the state Covid experts’ panel,” the chief minister said.

He also said the state was enhancing genome sequencing facilities for extensive study of the coronaviruses.

Currently, genome sequencing was being carried out at KGMU (King George’s Medical College) in Lucknow, BHU (Banaras Hindu University) in Varanasi, CDRI (Central Drugs Research Institute) in Lucknow with the help of IGBI (Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology), New Delhi, he said.

“Such genomic studies would certainly help in devising ways to tackle the Delta-Plus variant,” he said.

He said vaccination was the best bet for protection from coronavirus infections.

The state has administered 3.04 crore Covid vaccination doses so far.

“It is heartening to see the rising enthusiasm among people for vaccination in rural vaccination centres. People are turning up in large numbers there,” he said.

He said although the Covid-19 situation was improving, this was also the time to be more alert as markets, shops, and movement had opened up unhindered.

“People need to be more responsible towards following Covid appropriate behaviour and police also need to be active in enforcement of safety protocols such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and sanitisation. Minor negligence or laxity could prove dangerous,” he said.

In the past 24 hours, the state did 2.63 lakh Covid tests and only 190 fresh cases were reported across Uttar Pradesh while 261 patients had recovered and were discharged from hospitals, he said. The daily positivity rate was 0.1% while the recovery rate was 98.5%, he added.

At present, the state has 3046 active Covid cases and 1868 of them are in home isolation.