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Uttarakhand lags behind in Covid testing target set by Chief Secretary

Vineet Upadhyay

DEHRADUN: Even with Covid testing scam investigation and Uttarakhand High Court's criticism, the state has fell short of testing target by 39 per cemt, revealed analysis of Covid-19 data from June 10-22, 2021. 

Earlier, the Chief Secretary had instructed state health department officials to conduct at least 40,000 tests everyday on from June 10, 2021.

Totally, 2,92,076 tests have been conducted in the duration against the set target of 4,80,000. 

Anoop Nautiyal, whose Social Development for Communities Foundation has been collating Covid data since March 15, 2020, said, "Citizens of Uttarakhand can only be motivated to follow Covid appropriate behaviour with result oriented approach. People often tend to follow results produced by government. As a state we must put our best foot forward, achieve goals & minimise damages from pandemic."

The maximum number of tests were conducted in Dehradun with 75,152 tests, followed by Haridwar (68421), Udham Singh Nagar (33401), Nainital (15630), Tehri (15100), Almora (13560), Uttarkashi (13529), Pauri (13111), Chamoli (10429), Bageshwar (10189), Champawat (9948), Pithoragarh (7237) and Rudraprayag (6359). 

In terms of tests conducted per lakh population, border districts of Uttarkashi, Bageshwar and Champawat top the list while Nainital, Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar districts are worst performers. 

In the same duration (June 10-22, 2021), Uttarkashi district conducted 4015 tests per lakh followed by Bageshwar (3845), Champawat (3754), Dehradun (3632), Haridwar (2967), Chamoli (2610), Rudraprayag (2574), Tehri (2393), Almora (2135), Pauri (1870), Udham Singh Nagar (1661), Pithoragarh (1468) and Nainital (1343). 

However, the State health department officials said that they are trying their best to achieve the desired results and cases have come down significantly. 

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