COVID-19 lockdown: 5,669 stranded people brought to U'khand, says official

 Around 1,30,000 people from Uttarakhand stranded in different parts of the country due to the COVID-19-induced lockdown have applied online for returning to their state out of which 5,669 have been brought back, the state government said on Tuesday.

It also asked people wanting to return not to get impatient as the process of bringing people back will continue.

"We are coordinating with several states. The process of bringing people back will go on. But we want people wanting to return to be patient as they have to be brought very carefully to ensure their safety in such times," Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh said.

He also asked people coming from outside the state to strictly comply with the 14-day mandatory home quarantine to keep themselves and those around them safe.

Praising the performance of gram pradhans during the health emergency, Singh said the credit for keeping rural areas of the state free from COVID-19 goes to them.

Giving updates on the coronavirus situation in the state, the chief secretary said 61 people have tested positive for the disease so far out of which 39 have been discharged after recovery.

There are 21 active cases and the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases is 40 days and the recovery rate is 65 per cent, he said.

There was no coronavirus testing lab in Uttarakhand in March but there are four testing labs in the state now with each of them having a capacity to test nearly 500 sample per day, Singh said.

The ‘108’ ambulance service in Uttarakhand has also improved with its response time in rural areas reducing from 32 minutes to 27 minutes and from 25 minutes to 15 minutes in urban areas, he said.

Some relaxations have been given to people during the third phase of the lockdown but if they want these relaxations to continue they will have to show the same restraint that they showed during the first two phases, Singh said.