Active Covid cases below 20K in UP after 2 months
34 districts report less than 10 fresh cases; experts lay stress on continuing precautions
LUCKNOW : After a gap of two months, the active Covid-19 cases (number of patients under treatment) across Uttar Pradesh fell below the 20,000mark on Saturday.
Besides, 34 of the state’s 75 districts reported below 10 fresh cases on the day, according to official data. Two districts (Banda and Kanpur Dehat) recorded zero fresh cases.
On April 4, there were 19,738 active cases in the state and the number had gone up to 22,820 the next day.
“There are 19,438 active cases in the state at present of which 11,178 are in home isolation,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary (medical health and family welfare) at a press conference. Lucknow has 1121 active cases.
During the day, the state reported 1092 fresh cases and 120 deaths. With this, the total Covid case count in UP reached 16,97,352 and the death toll went up to 21,151.
“The number of active cases has fallen by 93.75% as compared with April 30 when there were 3,10,783 active cases in the state,” said Prasad.
The state’s overall case positivity rate was now 3.3% and the 24-hour positivity rate was 0.4%, he said. The recovery rate in the state is 97.6% and 5,10,32,967 samples have been tested till now.
Uttar Pradesh had reported 38,055 fresh cases on April 24, the highest in one day, while over 300 deaths were recorded in one day during the second wave.
Despite the dip in the daily and the active case count now, doctors sounded a note of caution.
“Even if there is one active Covid case, full precaution is needed. This is because the multiplication of patients in case of virus does not happen mathematically, which is 2, 4, 8 and 16, but it goes geometrically — 2, 4, 16, 72, 200,” said Prof Kauser Usman, head of the department of geriatric medicine at King George’s Medical University (KGMU).
“The threat from a probable third wave is knocking where children are most vulnerable. We should not forget children are not being vaccinated and they have not even developed immunity against the virus,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
“As young people in the house move out for work, even the slightest mistake by
them can bring infection into the house, which may be risky for children and the elderly,” said Dr Shukla.
The fall in cases comes at a time when government hospitals have resumed OPD (outpatient department) and admission services as beds in hospitals are becoming vacant with reduction in Covid-19 cases. Nevertheless, intensive care unit (ICU) beds have over 85% occupancy.
Sero-sampling has begun across the state with the aim to collect over 61,500 samples by June 11 to analyse the development of anti-bodies among UP residents.
On the other hand, a large number of black fungus (mucormycosis) patients are admitted in hospitals and shortage of amphotericin B injections is troubling patients in private hospitals. The state has reported over 700 black fungus cases of which over 300 are in Lucknow.