Every eighth Indian tested for Covid in 24 hours is from UP

LUCKNOW: One in eight persons who underwent Covid-19 tests in the country in the past 24 hours was from Uttar Pradesh, according to an assessment of national and state level Covid-19 data released here on Tuesday.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 6,98,290 Covid tests were done in the country, while the UP government officials claimed that 1,01,039 Covid-19 tests were done across 75 districts of UP.This means that over 14.6% of the total tests done in the country were undertaken by 42 labs in UP. In terms of persons, one in eight persons who was tested for coronavirus infection in India in the past 24 hours was from UP.
Additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad said: “Over 33,14,435 tests have been undertaken in the state which is about three times the WHO prescribed number of tests for UP.”
Secretary to CM, Alok Kumar overseeing Covid testing in state said: “Increased testing, ramped up over the past few weeks, has brought out many cases in the state. While the resultant rise in the number of positive patients may be seen as an alarm bell by some but the fact is that it has helped in bringing deaths under control. In fact, UP’s case fatality ratio for August remains 0.6% which is lesser than the targeted 1%.”
Meanwhile, a record 5,130 cases in the past 24 hours took UP’s Covid-19 tally to 1,31,852 on Tuesday. A look at the state bulletin revealed that 50.5% (or 2594) of the total cases were recorded in just 11 districts, including Lucknow (831), Prayagraj (252), Kanpur (248), Basti (227), Gorakhpur(201), Bareilly (198), Varanasi (169), Ballia (150), Barabanki (116), Deoria (101) and Ghaziabad (101).
The bulletin also recorded 59 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the total deaths to 2176. Of the total, Lucknow recorded a maximum of 12 deaths followed by Kanpur where five persons died. Four deaths each were reported in Prayagraj and Deoria while three each in Varanasi, Meerut andSonbhadra.
Health officials also noted that 3,870 persons recovered from the pandemic infection in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 80,589.