UP: New infection in 200s again, eight more die

Again the cases were not limited to hotspot districts but spread across 38 of the total 75 districts in the state.

Pratapgarh reported the highest new cases at 17, followed by 11 in Hapur, 10 each in Noida and Lakhimpur Kheri, nine in Ghaziabad, eight each in Meerut, Lucknow, Rampur, Siddharthnagar, Bahraich, Ghazipur, Sitapur and Pilibhit, seven each from Moradabad, Aligarh and Ambedkar Nagar, five from Gonda, four each from Agra, Basti, Hardoi and Shahjahanpur, three each from Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Shravasti, Deoria. Kanpur Nagar and Sambhal, two each from Sant Kabir Nagar, Auraiya, Amethi, Maharajganj, Ballia and Fatehpur, and one each from Mau, Bhadohi, Balrampur, Kannauj and Varanasi.

Among the fresh cases in Noida, one a 45-year-old health professional who was posted at the district hospital and a woman from Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) hostel in Greater Noida.

“We have noticed that in our random sample testing of migrant workers who have returned to the state, a big percentage of pools tested positive. That is the reason our total number of cases is going up every day,” Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said on Sunday.

Earlier this week, the government had started random testing of migrant workers through pool testing.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said that state government is now planning to ramp up the testing furthermore to 10,000 a day. “We have intensified our testing and yesterday (Saturday) we tested more than 6500 samples. We want to take this further to more than 10,000 a day,” he added.

While the recovery rate is improving and is at 59 per cent, the rate of deaths is also showing an uptick — 2.5 per cent.

Eight more deaths were reported — five in Aligarh, two in Kanpur City and one in Meerut – in the last 24 hours. The total toll has now reached 112.

Agra has the highest deaths at 27, followed by 19 at Meerut, 11 at Moradabad, eight each at Kanpur Nagar and Aligarh, five at Noida, four each at Firojabad, Jhansi and Mathura, two each at Mainpuri, Ghaizabad, and one each at Jalaun, Mahoba, Pratapgarh, Varanasi, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Hapur, Lalitpur, Prayagraj, Etah, Bijnore, Kanpur Dehat, Amroha, Bareilly, Basti, Bulandshahar, Azamgarh and Lucknow.

So far, 2,636 Covid patients have been discharged following their recovery, while the count of active cases in the state is 1,716.