By Express News Service
DEHRADUN: Data from Panchayati Raj Department revealed that out of total 15,981 active Covid cases in rural areas of Uttarakhand, 14,851 (93 per cent) were in home isolation till May 18, 2021.
Only 1008 are hospitalized for medical assistance.
Anoop Nautiyal from Social Development for Communities Foundation which has been collating and analysing data of Covid said, “The data itself indicates that there could not be greater evidence of complete lack of medical facilities in rural areas of the state. The government must understand that if unchecked, the spread will wreck-havoc in rural areas of the state.”
Highest number of cases in remote hills/rural areas were recorded in Nainital district with 2951 cases followed by Pauri (2472), Rudraprayag (2192), Chamoli (1615), Haridwar (1471), Uttarkashi (1340), Tehri (1205), Dehradun (1129), Pithoragarh (1030), Almora (367), Bageshwar (107), Udham Singh Nagar (85) and Champawat (17).
Out of there 2922 are kept in home isolation in Nainital followed by Rudraprayag (2122), Pauri (2086), Chamoli (1554), Haridwar (1310), Uttarkashi (1260), Tehri (1115), Dehradun (1065), Pithoragarh (925), Almora (347), Udham Singh Nagar (81), Bageshwar (47) and Champawat (17).
Responding to the queries about lesser testing, Subodh Uniyal, state cabinet minister and spokesperson for the government said, “The government has announced decentralized Covid policy keeping in mind checking the spread of Covid in rural areas of the state. Under this we are expanding Vividh Care Centers in every block of the state.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday number of active cases came down to 68,643 from 73172 on Wednesday. The state added 3658 new cases on Thursday while 8006 people recovered.
Earlier this week, Uttarakhand slipped to second last spot in the country in terms of recovery rate with 70.3%. The state is just 0.2% ahead of Sikkim which is at last spot.
With rise in cases in second wave of Covid 19 recovery rate in Uttarakhand has been dropping. On April 1, 2021 the RR was recorded 94.4% which dipped to 68.9% on May 1, 2021.
