Total cases close to 2,500, death toll inches to 50 in UP

However, three more patients of coronavirus died in the last two days, taking the total number of COVID-19-related deaths to 43 in the state, including 14 in Agra , followed by seven in Moradabad, six in Meerut, four in Kanpur, two in Firozabad and one each in Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Bareilly, Bulandshahr, Basti, Mathura, Amroha, Aligarh and Shravasti.

While those found positive in Sidharthnagar and Deoria are migrants who recently reached the district, two health workers have tested positive in Mahoba.

Four people, including three women, tested positive for coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar on Saturday, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the district to 159, officials said.

In Noida, four patients, including a toddler, have been discharged from hospital following recovery, leaving 65 active cases in the district, they said. “Four more tested positive. The cumulative positive cases of coronavirus is now 159,” Gautam Buddh Nagar District Surveillance Officer Sunil Dohare said.

Earlier in the day, Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said that the state is prepared to receive the migrants, expected to come from different parts of the country, and detailed guidelines have been issued for the same.

“Under the guidelines, all the migrants are to be screened. If they are found healthy they would be sent into home quarantine for 21 days. Outside their homes, we will paste a flyer mentioning the data till they are in home quarantine. Anyone having any kind of symptom will be stopped and tested. If tested positive, they will be kept in isolation ward. If tested negative, they will still have to be in quarantine for at least seven days. Another test will be conducted after seven days,” he said.

Since a large number of migrants will be returning to the state, arrangement of community surveillance is being made, the principal secretary said.

For this, ‘gram nigrani samitis’ are being formed in the rural areas and ‘mohalla nigrani samitis’ in the urban areas, he added.

According to him, the number of tests is continuously increasing and including the backlogs, a total 4,431 samples were tested on Friday. In addition to that, 3,356 new samples were sent to labs for testing. “In pool testing, 331 pools of 1607 samples were tested in 11 of our laboratories. Out of these, 23 pools came out to be positive after which all samples in them were tested separately, Rest of the 308 pools tested negative,” he added.