3,000+ Covid cases for fourth straight day, Uttar Pradesh sixth worst-hit

Ten districts witnessed 100 or more cases and two of them over 200 cases since Tuesday. Lucknow and Kanpur Nagar witnessed 262 and 260 new cases. Gorakhpur saw 177 new cases, followed by 162 in Bareilly, 150 in Prayagaraj, 148 in Jaunpur, 144 in Moradabad, 127 in Varanasi, 103 in Bhadohi and 100 in Ballia.

According to senior health officials, after the recovery of 45,807 patients, the state has 29,997 active cases. Talking to the media, Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said 87,754 Covid samples were tested on Tuesday, of which 52,195 were rapid antigen tests and the rest by RT-PCR method and TrueNat machines. A total of 21,20,843 Covid samples have been tested in Uttar Pradesh.

Of the 33 deaths, five each were from Lucknow and Kanpur Nagar, three from Jhansi, two from Basti, and one each from Ambedkar Nagar, Hamirpur, Pratapgarh, Shamli, Rae Bareli, Etawah, Bijnor, Kannauj, Siddharthnagar, Muzaffarnagar, Shahjahanpur, Saharanpur, Ayodhya, Barabanki, Hapur, Gorakhpur, Bareilly and Gautam Buddh Nagar.

Gautam Buddh Nagar recorded one fatality after a gap of eight days. The Two NCR districts of Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad have seen dip in new cases and deaths. In the last 24 hours, 65 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Gautam Buddh Nagar, while neighbouring Ghaziabad recorded 74 new cases and no deaths.

As per the state health department bulletin, of the total 77,334 patients, 70.49 per cent are men and the rest women.
Similarly, 14.61 per cent of the patients are in the 0-20 age group, 49.38 per cent in the 21-40 age group, 27.84 per cent in the 41-60 age group and the rest 8.17 per cent above 60 years of age.

The share of female patients has gone up by three percentage points and those above 60 years of age by two percentage points in the last one month, showed the state data.

The state information department on Wednesday claimed that Covid centres of all medical colleges have an adequate number of isolation beds and oxygen facilities. Oxygen backup of more than 48 hours is also being ensured, it said in a statement.

The Opposition parties had earlier claimed a shortage of beds and lack of facilities for Covid patients.

At least 11 medical colleges are being provided remdesivir injections free, the department said. Two centres –SGPGI and KGMU in Lucknow — have been provided tocilizumab medicine free.

According to Additional Chief Secretary (Medical Education) Rajnish Dube, around 20,000 patients have been admitted under his department and 14,000 of them discharged. The medical colleges claimed to have 232 bypass machines and 44 high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) machines. Another 137 bypass and 215 NFNC machines are being purchased.

As many as 75 serious Covid patients — SGPGI, KGMU, SSPH Noida, Jims Greater Noida, GSVM Kanpur, Santosh Medical College Ghaziabad and SN Medical College Agra —and 60 of them have recovered. At least 833 serious patients in the state medical colleges have been kept on ventilator and 62 of them have recovered, claimed the statement.

To better understand the nature and spread of the virus, the state had on Tuesday decided to a sero-surveillance exercise. Under the survey, blood samples of a randomised group will be collected and checked for antibodies. Similar surveys have been conducted in Mumbai and Delhi. Both the surveys found the presence of novel Coronavirus-specific antibodies in slightly less than 25 per cent of those tested.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to set up district-level panels comprising district magistrates, chief medical officers and chief development officers to prepare a work plan to fight the pandemic more effectively.

He directed senior officials to visit Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahar, Hapur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Saharanpur for an on-the-spot review of health services.

The infrastructure and industrial development commissioner and the additional chief secretary health who recently visited Moradabad and Bareilly divisions, and ASP medical education and ASP rural development and panchayati raj who visited Aligarh and Agra divisions apprised the CM about the visit.

The Chief Minister said an integrated command and control centre should be set up in every district for properly carrying out Covid-19 monitoring.