Lucknow, May 23 : Uttar Pradesh, despite being the most populous state, has become the first state in the country to inoculate maximum number of youths. Since May 1, when registrations opened for the category of 18-44, about ten lakh youths have so far been able to receive a jab in the state. Currently, the drive is running in 23 districts of the state. According to the government spokesman, this is the highest number of vaccinations in this category since the inoculation exercise for 18+ began. It is noteworthy that the deadly virus powered by new Covid variants, has been impacting the younger population more. With the anticipation of the third wave, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also planning to extend the drive and vaccinate parents of the kids under 10 year as soon as possible. "Before the third wave of corona arrives, we are making arrangements to provide protection to the parents of all children under 10 years of age by giving them vaccine doses," said the spokesman. Taking the lead in Covid vaccination, the state has, so far, administered as many as 1,62,16,379 doses of vaccine. Of these, 1,28,74,451 have received their first doses and around 33,41,928 got their second doses of vaccine. The chief minister has been consistently working to ramp up the vaccination drive in the state. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, who was in Kanpur on Saturday, said that he had instructed all the officials to reconstruct, renovate, provide all modern types of equipment and restart a municipal corporation hospital for children, which has been closed for past years. He further said that every medical college should prepare for 100-ICU pediatric beds, 100 bed for (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) NICU with oxygen, 20-25 NICU bed in district hospitals and some CSC (Common Service Centre) in rural regions have also been directed to start preparing for the third wave. The Chief Minister said that the government's aim is to prepare for the third wave while battling the second wave. The Chief Minister also said that the state government aims to control the second wave of the pandemic within May 30 and urged the citizens to adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour in order to achieve that target. The Chief Minister has already extended the Corona curfew till May 30. /IANS