Explained in 5 charts: How UP became second worst Covid-hit state after Maharashtra

NEW DELHI: The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has left a brutal impact on Uttar Pradesh. The new surge has nearly crippled the state's medical infrastructure.
The cities of Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Lucknow, Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad and Meerut have borne the maximum brunt of the pandemic.

The state has contributed nearly 10% of the total cases in the country, according to health ministry's data. As many as 3.14 lakh new cases were recorded in the country in the last 24 hours. New cases in UP took the state’s overall tally to 9,76,765 of which 2,59,810 are active.

Here is a look at the impact of Covid-19 on Uttar Pradesh.


It took four days for the 5-day daily average of cases to increase by 7,000 in April. During the first wave of the pandemic, the same rise had taken place in six months.

During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Uttar Pradesh, it took 180 days for the daily cases to reach the peak value of 7,016 on September 11, 2020.

This year the state reported 75 cases on February 22, according to ministry's data. In the next 48 days, the five-day daily average of cases increased from 75 to 7,000. The next 7,000 cases were added in a mere four days.


The steep rise in Covid-19 cases in April has made Uttar Pradesh the second biggest contributor of new cases in the country after Maharashtra, according to data provided by the Union ministry of health and family welfare.

In April, the state reported 396,176 cases — 9% of the country's tally. On April 23, the state contributed nearly 11% of the country's total Covid-19 cases.

According to health ministry data, over 76% of the new cases were reported from 10 Indian states with Maharashtra leading the list followed by Uttar Pradesh with 34,379 new cases. Delhi recorded the third-highest number of fresh cases.

As many as 3.14 lakh new cases were recorded in the country in the last 24 hours. New cases in UP took the state’s overall tally to 9,76,765 of which 2,59,810 are active.


Lucknow continued to be the biggest contributor with 5,239 cases, followed by Prayagraj (2,013) and Varanasi (1,813).

A look at the trend indicated that Meerut went up the ladder with 1,684 new cases in the last 24 hours. The western UP district surpassed Gautam Budh Nagar to bag the sixth spot. Spike was recorded in Chandauli (713), Moradabad (870), Jhansi (823) and Gorakhpur (1,136).

Incremental rise in the number of deaths took the tally to 10,541 on Thursday with 195 fresh casualties. Lucknow (19), Prayagraj (18), Kanpur (18), Gautam Budh Nagar (11), Varanasi (10) and Ghaziabad (8) were the biggest contributors.


The city recorded over 5,000 new Covid-19 infections for the 12th consecutive day on Thursday, catapulting the second wave tally to over 85,000. This is equal to the total cases in a year from March-2020 to March-2021.


The city’s case count now stands at 1.7 lakh. Of these, 85,266 (51%) infections were recorded in the second wave from March 15 till Thursday.

This means, over the past 38 days Lucknow recorded as much cases as it had in the 12 preceding months, giving a clear picture of the exponential growth of the second wave in comparison to the first.

Besides infecting 5,239 people, the deadly virus also claimed lives of 19 patients in the past 24 hours, taking the second wave toll to 398 — which was over 25% of the total 1,585 deaths recorded in the pandemic so far.