Continuous improvement in COVID-19 doubling, recovery rate in Uttarakhand: Chief Secretary

Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh on Monday said there is continuous improvement in COVID-19 doubling and recovery rate in the state.

"Special attention has been paid to contact tracing. There are 6,294 contact traces of 1,380 COVID-19 patients. The health of these contacts is being monitored and the necessary action is taken by determining their risk profile. Currently, there are about 1,30,000 people in quarantine and most of them are in-home quarantine. There are 55 containment zones in the state where regulations are being followed strictly," Singh said at a press conference.

There are 20,000 COVID-19 beds, 243 with ICU, and 126 with ventilators, Singh said.

He said work of MNREGA is continuously increasing. "There are 2,1816 workers under MNREGA in the state and 15,000 new job cards have been created, out of which work has already been provided to 11,000," he added.

The state government released guidelines and made mandatory seven days institutional quarantine followed by 14 days in-home quarantine for all inbound persons from high load COVID-19 infected cities irrespective of the mode of travel.

However, there can be some relaxation for pregnant women and senior citizens.

The guidelines said that no permit/permission shall be required for inter-district movement within the state. However, all such persons shall mandatorily register themselves on the web portal, prior to their movement.

All non-essential activities and movement of people would be prohibited across the state between 7 pm to 7 am.

The state government has listed 31 high load COVID-19 districts based on their number of cases.

It includes all districts of Maharashtra, all districts of Delhi, Chennai, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Thane and Pune in Maharashtra, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, and many others.

The state till 9 pm on Monday reported 31 new COVID-19 cases taking the total number of cases in the state is now at 1,411, including 714 discharged and 13 deaths, said the state health department.

( With inputs from ANI )