Record single-day spike of 1,392 Covid cases in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW : The Covid -19 tally in Uttar Pradesh crossed the 35,000-mark after the state recorded the highest single-day spike of 1,392 cases on Saturday, a senior official said.

The state also reported 24 new fatalities, raising the toll to 913, additional chief secretary and principal secretary (health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.

He said the state got seven more RT-PCR labs which would further increase its testing capacity.

On Saturday, 1,392 fresh cases were reported in the state, taking the tally of coronavirus positive cases to 35,092, Prasad said.

The number of active cases was 11,490, while 22,689 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the infection, he said.

A total of 42,354 tests were done through RT-PCR, Truenat and rapid antigen methods on Friday, setting a new record of testing in a single day, the official said.

Prasad said over 11.16 lakh tests had been done in the state so far.

The state also got seven new testing labs with chief minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurating them at a function here, Prasad said, adding they had become functional from Saturday in Aligarh,

Varanasi, Gonda, Moradabad, Bareilly, Mirzapur and Balrampur hospital in Lucknow.

A network of over 36,000 Covid helpdesks had been set up in the state so far, which was proving to be an important platform for screening and detection of suspected cases, he said.

The Lucknow chief medical officer’s office was closed on Saturday for sanitisation after an accountant in the Urban National Health Mission (UNHM) wing tested positive for Covid-19. The 30-year-old accountant was tested after he developed a sore throat on July 9