Gearing Up For The Vaccine

Since the very beginning of the pandemic, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has taken on a very hands-on role in the state’s Covid management efforts

- Ashish Misra

Since the very beginning of the pandemic, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has taken on a very hands-on role in the state’s Covid management efforts. Soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, CM Adityanath set up a “Team 11” comprising 11 inter-departmental committees to monitor the developing Covid situation. The 11 officers heading each committee would brief the CM every morning on the latest health developments. Due to this direct monitoring, UP, according to its health department, has become the only state to conduct over 22 million Covid tests in the country and is still conducting over 15 0,000 tests daily, the highest in the country. As a result, UP, India’s most populous state, which also had one of the highest share of returning migrants during the pandemic, has recorded fewer Covid deaths (8,103, as on December 16) as compared to other states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and West Bengal. The state government’s handling of the Covid crisis even won the praise of the World Health Organization in November. As India nears the 10 million case mark, the manner in which one of its largest states handled the Covid crisis is indeed a working example of how foresight, planning and closely-monitored execution can help contain infectious diseases.