1.25 lakh sample tests to be conducted in UP every day

LUCKNOW : Even as Covid cases have declined in Uttar Pradesh, the health and family welfare department has decided to maintain the pace of sample test and surveillance.

The department has decided to conduct 1.25 lakh sample tests daily across the state to break the chain of coronavirus infection. The increase in sample tests helped the department to bring down the Covid graph, said an officer.

The house-to-house surveillance launched in March last year helped the department reach 3.13 crore households and 15.21 crore people in the state.

During surveillance, the health teams located the infected people. The patients were then shifted to hospital or put in home isolation, he said.

Additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad said the positivity rate in UP dropped to 0.41%. On Monday, 1.21 lakh samples were tested, taking the sample tests tally to 2.64 crore, he added.

Uttar Pradesh achieved the top position in the country in providing medical consultation to people through e-sanjivani portal. In last 24 hours, 5,299 people availed the consultation, taking the tally to 4.15 lakh, he said.

Prasad said in the last 24 hours, 376 fresh Covid cases were reported in the state while 789 patients were discharged after recovery. Till Tuesday, 5.80 lakh people were discharged after recovery since the start of the Covid pandemic in March last year, he added.

The highest number of fresh cases were reported in Lucknow 73, followed by Gorakhpur 19, Prayagraj 18, Kanpur, Balrampur and Varanasi 16 each, Varanasi, Bareilly and Meerut 15 each, Rae Bareili 14 and Ghaziabad 13 cases. There were 8,172 active Covid cases in the state while 2,796 patients were in home isolation, 757 in private hospitals and the remaining 4,619 patients were admitted to government hospitals, he said.

In last 24 hours, four deaths were reported in UP, one each in Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Ghazipur and Sitapur, taking the fatality count to 8,584.