5,000 Covid cases: State crosses unwelcome milestone in 79 days

LUCKNOW From March 2 to May 20, it took Uttar Pradesh 79 days to cross the unwelcome milestone of 5,000 cases, according to the data released by the state health department on Wednesday.

The overall tally of infections stood at 5,220 with 294 fresh cases. The average daily rate of increase in cases was 65, an analysis of the same data indicated.

“Till now, 127 patients have died and 3,066 patients were discharged, including 148 released today. The number of active cases in Uttar Pradesh now is 1,982,” said Dr Vikasendu Agrawal, state surveillance officer in the health department.

The state went past the 1000case mark (1184) on April 20. This milestone came 49 days after the first case was reported in Agra on March 2. The 2,000-mark (2,053) was crossed on April 28, eight days after the 1,000 mark. The tally went up 3,000-mark (3214 exactly) on May 8, which was 10 days later. The 4,000-mark was reached on May 15 (4,057). The 5,000 mark came in seven days since then, revealed the state data released on Wednesday.

Experts say rising cases should not be a cause for worry.

“UP is increasing its testing capacity every week. Hence, cases are also going up. But the focus should be on identification of cases and treatment,” said Dr Surya Kant, head of the department of respiratory medicine department at KGMU.

“According to the data, 51.5% of the total patients in the state are in the age group of 21 and 40 years. About 24% are between 41 and 60 years. This means people between 21 and 60 years need to be extra cautious,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general of the Association of International Doctors.

Principal secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad said the number of patients getting cured was increasing constantly and the number of active cases had been less since May 11. He said 7,179 samples and 558 pool tests were conducted on Tuesday, out of which 65 pools were found positive. So far, 2132 people were kept in isolation and 12,427 in quarantine, he said.

He said 83, 804 teams surveyed 66.64 lakh households and screened 3.38 crore people.

He said, 30, 780 phone calls were made by the control room established by health department after alerts sent by Aarogya Setu App. As a result, 326 people were quarantined, 71 were found infected and 41 were sent home after recovery, he said.

According to the health department data, all 75 districts of UP have reported cases till now, including Agra (836), Lucknow (308), Ghaziabad (199), Noida (302), Kanpur (318), Prayagraj (58), Moradabad (170), Varanasi (124). Till date, 4,16,454 persons have been identified and tracked by District Surveillance Units.

The health department data also showed that 536,223 interstate migrants were put under surveillance and 43,625 samples collected from migrants. In all, 1041 of them have tested positive.