UP’s COVID-19 tally reaches 17,135; death toll rises to 529

Lucknow: Twenty-two people have succumbed to COVID-19 and 541 more people tested positive in Uttar Pradesh in the last 24 hours, officials said on Saturday.

The death toll in the state is 529 now with the coronavirus tally reaching 17,135, they said.

Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said 10,369 of the total infected have recovered. The state has 6,237 active COVID-19 patients now.

Among the 22 new fatalities, five have been reported from Meerut, two each in Kanpur Nagar, Ghaziabad, Varanasi and Hapur, one each in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Sambhal, Mathura, Muzaffarnagar, Etawah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad and Baghpat, a health department release said.

As many as 65 cases were reported from Hapur followed by 55 in Kanpur Nagar, 41 in Gautam Budhnagar, 40 in Ghaziabad and 38 in Lucknow among others, the release said

On Friday, 14,048 samples were tested, he said, adding that ASHA workers have tracked over 17 thousand people. Samples of 1,567 of them have been sent for testing, he said.

Prasad said that random testing was being carried out in old age homes, orphanages and juvenile homes on the directions of the chief minister.

COVID-19 cases have been found in old age homes in Sultanpur, Kushinagar and Jalaun districts and in orphanages and juvenile homes in Meerut and Kanpur.

A government spokesman said urban slums were sampled randomly across the state. In the bigger districts, 10 slums were sampled. In the middle size districts, 5 slums per districts and in the smaller districts 2 slums per district were sampled.

A total of 311 slums were randomly tested across the state. Thirty slums in 20 districts showed positivity for COVID-19 in pool test. Out of 4,160 samples tested, 75 samples tested positive and the results of 4,085 came out negative.

Twenty districts which “showed positivity” are Ambedkar Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Sultanpur, Varanasi, Moradabad, Mathura, Shravasti, Aligarh, Auraiya, Badaun, Ballia, Etah, Firozabad, Ghazipur, Jalaun, Kanpur Nagar, Merrut and Gautam Buddha Nagar.

Such random sampling is being carried out to map the vulnerability of high risk groups, generate awareness among them and take corrective measures in time to contain the spread of infection, the spokesman said.

The chief minister has directed all DMs to take precautionary measures. He has also asked for active contact-tracing and sampling wherever “positivity” has been found in the slums, the spokesman added.