Hard work of UP govt saved 85,000 lives during COVID-19: PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that looking at the hard work done by Uttar Pradesh government during COVID-19 pandemic, it has managed to save 85,000 lives.

Speaking at the launch of "Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rojgar Abhiyan", through video conference, Prime Minister Modi said, "UP is bigger than many countries of the world. Looking at the hard work done by Uttar Pradesh govt during COVID-19 pandemic, we can say that it has managed to save 85,000 lives."

"In the coronavirus crisis, Uttar Pradesh has shown courage and temperament. It has achieved success and the way it fought coronavirus and handled the situation, it is phenomenal," the Prime Minister said.

"I praise 24 crore citizens of Uttar Pradesh. Its doctors, paramedic staff, station workers, police personnel, Asha and Aanganwadi workers, bank and post office officials, transport officials, and others all contributed in the fight against the pandemic," the Prime Minister said.

He said that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his team did a great job.

The Prime Minister then made a comparison of deaths in four countries of Europe with those in UP, Prime Minister Modi said, "England, France, Italy and Spain. If we combine the population of these countries then their population is the same as that of Uttar Pradesh which is 24 crore. During coronavirus, 1,30,000 people have died in these countries. But in UP with the same population, 600 people died during coronavirus. It is true that death is death and each person's death is sad. But we have to accept that these four countries made a lot of efforts, but still, they lost so many lives in compared to Uttar Pradesh."

"America has every facility but still that country is badly affected by COVID-19. The population of the US is 33 crore. In the US, 1,25,000 people have died. In UP, 600 people died. If Yogi Adityanath's government had not prepared well then today in UP, 85,000 lives would have been lost. So we can say that the UP government is able to save the lives of 85,000 people," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )