DAILY DEATH COUNT FALLS IN UP, BUT EXPERTS HAVE A WORD OF CAUTION

7,735 fresh cases surface, recovery rate improves to 92.5%

: Despite UP registering a sharp fall in daily Covid deaths on Friday, experts warned there was nothing to relax about unless this decline in numbers became a trend for over the next two weeks.

UP saw 172 deaths on Friday as compared to 238 a day before. But this fall wasn’t enough, said experts.

LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh’s daily death count dipped by 72% as the state recorded 172 fatalities on Friday in comparison to 238 the previous day. A total of 7,735 fresh Covid cases surfaced, pushing the infection tally to 16,59,212, since the outbreak of the pandemic.

It was after a month’s gap that the number of deaths came down to below 180. On April 20, there were 163 fatalities and 187 on April 21. The state’s fatality count now stood at 18,760, as per the health department.

Till now, UP had tested 46112448 Covid samples, including 2,89,810 in the past 24 hours.

“The recovery rate of the state is improving. It is now 92.5%. Active cases in the state in the past 20 days have come down by 68%,” said Navneet Sehgal, additional chief secretary, information, in a press conference on Friday.

Of the total 1,06,276 active cases under treatment, 72,547 were currently in home isolation, 8,635 in private hospitals and the remaining in government Covid facilities, said Sehgal.

Of the fresh deaths, 15 were reported from Varanasi, 12 from Lucknow, 11 from Saharanpur, six from Kanpur, nine from Meerut, eight from Gorakhpur, as per a health bulletin issued here.

Maximum 1,003 fresh Covid cases were reported from Ghaziabad, 892 from Gorakhpur, 427 from Meerut, 394 from Gautam Buddha Nagar, 287 from Saharanpur, 286 from Lucknow and 229 cases from Varanasi, the data stated.