State’s Covid tally inching close to five-lakh mark

The overall Covid-19 infection count in Uttar Pradesh reached 4,97,563 on Sunday with 2,247 fresh cases, including 231 in Lucknow, even while the death toll went up to 7,206 due to 26 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours, according to official data.

The maximum five deaths were reported in Meerut and there were two fatalities in Gorakhpur. Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Varanasi, Moradabad, Banda and a dozen other districts reported one death each.

Among the other cities, Ghaziabad reported 223 new cases of Covid-19 infection, Meerut 204, Gautam Buddha Nagar 139, Kanpur 85, Prayagraj 73 and Gorakhpur 22.

Lucknow has reported 916 deaths till now, including one on Sunday. So far, 48,627 patients have opted for home isolation in the state capital. The case positivity rate in Lucknow is 7.11% and a total of 9,18,529 samples have been tested there. The state’s overall count of Covid-19 tests stands at 1,60,89,592.

The Lucknow areas from which new cases were reported on Sunday included Gomtinagar 26, Ashiana 18, Indiranagar 16, Rae Bareli Road 15 and Alambagh 14. There were 10 new cases each from Mahanagar, Aliganj, Thakurganj and Chowk areas of the state capital.

“So far, Lucknow has reported 65,317 cases and 61,264 patients have recovered. The recovery rate at present is 93.79%,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.

In the last 24 hours, 271 patients were discharged from hospitals in Lucknow while the samples of 7,836 people were collected in a contact-tracing exercise.