Lucknow: The second surge of coronavirus wreaked havoc on Thursday after Uttar Pradesh set another record of highest single-day spike of 195 deaths and 34,379 active cases across the state ever since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
Thursday’s figure left behind 187 deaths and 33,214 active cases reported on Wednesday taking the total number of active cases to 2,59,810 and fatality count to 10,541.
The record numbers of deaths and active cases are a blow to the sustained efforts being made by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to break the chain of second wave of coronavirus.
The Chief Minister is himself down with coronavirus but monitoring the grim situation in the state on a daily and hourly basis. His deputy Chief Minister Dr Dinesh Sharma also tested positive along with his wife. Both are under home isolation.
The only solace on Thursday was a record 16,514 infected patients were discharged and they returned home after battling for life for 10 to 15 days in different covid hospitals.
“The latest figure of 16,500 people winning over coronavirus on Thursday is an indication that we are going in the right direction to win the battle against coronavirus again, provided we keep patience and follow the test, track and treat mantra with humanitarian and sensitive approach,” reacted the Chief Minister.
With rising active cases, there is a tremendous pressure on covid hospitals to make available beds, maintain oxygen supply, life-saving drugs, other medicines and medical staff.
Already, 30 percent of the total medical staff, including doctors and paramedics, in major hospitals in the state capital Lucknow have tested positive and are under home isolation. A few hospitals have closed their ventilator units as they do not have trained staff to operate them.
Shortage of staff has also affected the vaccination drive. The state is far behind other states and has not even crossed the figure of 10 million till date.
“We expect to ramp up drive from May 1 after the vaccination is opened for 18 years and above despite shortage of support medical staff,” said ACS Health Amit Mohan Prasad.
“We are unable to cope up with the grim situation. Even if we increase covid beds and maintain supplies, we have no doctors and trained staff to attend coronavirus positive patients. Time has come to take drastic steps or else the current situation will lead us to create more crematoriums,” feared a senior doctor of a government hospital, not wishing to be quoted for obvious reasons.
