UP’s 1,515 new cases lowest in Dec, Lucknow reports 248

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh reported 1,515 fresh Covid-19 cases on Monday, the lowest for a single day in December. The tally of cases in the state has reached 5,56,397 so far. The death toll went up to 7,944 with 20 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours across the state, according to official data.

With 248 fresh instances of Covid-19 infection, Lucknow was the only district to report over 200 cases on the day.

Kanpur reported 68 cases, Prayagraj 41, Ghaziabad 155, Gautam Buddha Nagar 80,

Meerut 176, Gorakhpur 39, Agra and Muzaffarnagar 43 and Varanasi 82 cases. Varanasi and Kanpur recorded two deaths each. One death each was reported from Lucknow, Prayagraj, Ghaziabad and Gorakhpur.

Till now, 2,04,53,616 samples have been tested for the coronavirus infection in the state, including 1,44,853 in the past 24 hours.

“The recovery rate in the state is 94.67%,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary (medical health).

He said a special screening campaign was run in November among jail inmates, vegetable vendors, old age homes, slums, people coming to weekly markets. A total of 6,39,885 samples were tested in the state under this drive and 2,538 people tested positive.

Till now, Lucknow has reported 73,642 cases and 69,261 patients have recovered while 1,030 deaths have been reported.

“The recovery rate in Lucknow is now 94.05%,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors. Over 11,90,000 samples have been tested in Lucknow so far.

In the last 24 hours, 263 patients were discharged in the state capital and samples of 9,517 people were taken as part of a contact-tracing exercise. Among the state capital’s localities, fresh cases were reported from Indiranagar 24, Alambagh 14, Gomtinagar 20, Rae Bareli Road 15, Chowk 16, Ashiana 11, Vikas Nagar 14 and Talkatora, Hazratganj and Jankipuram 10 each.