With the Holi festival coming up, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to launch a focused drive for testing migrant workers and persons for COVID-19.
The State would run a 15-day “focused sampling” drive from March 13 to 27, said Amit Mohan Prasad, Principal Secretary, Health.
During Holi, people from other States and areas come back to their homes to celebrate, he said. “There is a lot of movement,” he said.
Those included in the focused drive would be persons returning from States with high rates of infection, people who sell colours and water guns, those working in restaurants and dhabas (eateries) and also those involved in the liquor and bhang shops, said the official in a press briefing here.
Meanwhile, the State said it had become the first in the country to administer 20 lakh doses of the vaccine. While over 14.85 lakh shots were given in the first phase, in the second phase for persons above 60 and those between 45 and 60, doses had been administered to over 5.29 lakh persons.
