UP among three states to test 20 Lakh samples: Covid deaths near 1,500; cases 74,000

At least 41 fresh deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total death count to 1,497. I Six deaths each were reported from Varanasi and Bareilly, five from Kanpur Nagar, three from Lucknow, two each from Basti, Hardoi, Moradabad and Prayagraj, and one each from Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Sambhal, Saharapur, Rampur, Shahjahanpur, Sant Kabir Nagar, Unnao, Mainpuri, Sultanpur, Farrukhabad, Balrampur and Ambedkarnagar.

According to officials, the state has 27,934 active cases after the recovery of 44,520 patients.

Earlier in the day, officials claimed to have tested more than 20 lakh samples with an addition of 91,830 on Monday. Uttar Pradesh is among three states, including Maharashtra, that have tested these many samples with Tamil Nadu (34.14 lakh) topping the chart. The actual number of people who have tested will be lower because many are tested multiple times.

Uttar Pradesh took merely 20 days to add another 10 lakh tests, a surge mostly led by rapid antigen tests. On Sunday, it had tested more than 1 lakh samples for the first time. In addition, the state’s tests per million has doubled to over 9,000 within three weeks while the positivity rate (samples that are positive) has been steadily rising from 2.99 to 3.45.

Senior officials confirmed that most tests are rapid antigen tests. Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Kumar Awasthi had on Monday said that to maintain the one-lakh-test-daily figure, CM Yogi Adityanath directed officials to conduct more than 35,000 RT-PCR tests, over 2,500 TrueNat tests and 60-65,000 antigen tests.

Adityanath on Tuesday directed officials to test children, pregnant women and elderly on priority.

The Chief Minister asked doctors and researchers to study the case history of fully recovered patients to develop an effective treatment for the infected persons.

Meanwhile, a youth who was kept in the lock-up at Motigarpur police station of Sultanpur district tested positive. The police station has been sealed for 48 hours and is being sanitized, sources said. No outsiders are allowed to enter the police station and their complaints are being taken from outside.