UP Govt's Strategic Response To Covid-19 By Stepping Up Contact Tracing Efforts Is 'Exemplary': WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has lauded Chief Minister (CM) yogi Adityanath-led uttar Pradesh (UP) government's strategy to control the COVID-19 pandemic during its peak, reports Times of India.

The global health body profiled the state's contact tracing mechanism in a special feature coverage published on Thursday (12 November). In the feature, WHO has termed the state's "early and systematic tracking of high-risk contacts" as helpful in stepping up the fight against COVID-19.

The WHO noted that when cases surged post the lifting of restrictions, the UP government with the global health body's support put in place a mechanism to evaluate the status and quality of contact tracing to guide policy level decision making for an informed public health response.

WHO said that being the most populous state, UP's fight against COVID-19 has been particularly challenging. WHO's India representative Dr Roderico Ofrin said, "The UP Government's strategic response to COVID-19 by stepping up contact tracing efforts is exemplary and can serve as a good example for other states."

The state government had deployed a huge workforce of more than 70,000 front-line health workers to list the contacts of COVID-19 positive patients. Further, to evaluate the quality of contact tracing, the state government had roped in WHO as an independent evaluation agency.