Breaking all previous records of coronavirus spread in the state since the beginning of the pandemic in March last year, as many as 8,490 people tested positive in the last 24 hours in Uttar Pradesh. The previous highest single-day jump was recorded on September 11 last year when the number of fresh cases had crossed 7,000.
Nearly 50 per cent of the fresh cases were reported from the three worst-affected districts of Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, and all these districts have individually reported their own highest single-day rise since March last year. While 2,369 people tested positive in Lucknow, Prayagraj reported 1,040 cases, followed by 794 in Varanasi. Moreover, as per their own record, all the three districts have also reported the maximum number of active cases so far. Lucknow is by far the worst-hit district with 10,749 active cases, followed by 4,517 in Prayagraj and 3,726 in Varanasi.
In total, 12 districts in the state have confirmed more than 100 positive cases in the last one day. The rest of the districts are Kanpur Nagar, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Jhansi, Saharanpur and Rae Bareli. At least 10 of these districts have over 500 active cases. The Covid toll now reached 9,003 with 39 patients dying in the last 24 hours. The state now has 39,338 active cases – highest since mid-October last year.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced that in districts reporting more than 100 cases a day, or having over 500 active cases, the District Magistrates can take a call on closing secondary schools. In such districts, the administration can also decide on controlling travel during the night. However, essential services like transportation of medicines and food items should not be hindered.
So far, night curfew has been announced from 9 pm to 8 am at eight highly affected districts – Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Noida, Meerut, Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Prayagraj and Varanasi. Ferrying essential items, movement of goods vehicles, supply of fruits, vegetables, milk, LPG cylinders, petrol-diesel and medicine will continue as usual in these districts.
“All government, private educational institutes (except medical, paramedical and nursing), including coaching institutes will not be allowed to hold physical classes till April 17. However, all exams including practicals shall be held as per the schedule and are exempted from this order,†said Suhas LY, DM Gautam Buddh Nagar.
Amid the steep rise of Covid-19 cases in the state, the CM on Thursday decided to increase the number of beds reserved for coronavirus patients in all the government as well as private hospitals. This is expected to improve bed availability and also curb the surging coronavirus cases in Uttar Pradesh. According to a statement issued by the state information department, the CM has repeated his commitment to ensure that there is no shortage of resources to deal with the virus. The state government is all geared up so that people do not face any kind of hardship, and has also ordered officials to keep a tab on the availability of medicines used in the treatment of coronavirus infection and make it available in sufficient quantity.
“In the level two and three Covid-19 hospitals of the state, the ICU has nearly 4,333 beds, which will now be increased to 4,611. Along with this, the number of isolation beds will increase from 11,811 to approximately 16,422 in the government and private hospitals,†said a government official.
According to A K Jain, State Drug Controller, all the medicines and other products related to infection are available in sufficient quantity in the state, including sanitiser, PPE kit, ivermectin and azithromycin.
“During the pandemic, the state government has also increased the resources for testing, number of beds and ventilators in the hospitals and other required facilities. As of February, there were 86 units for making hand sanitiser in the state, which has now increased to 151. Since February, 65 new sanitiser units have been established,†said Jain.
Talking to the media, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said on normal days, the number of samples, which was recently increased to nearly 1.75 lakh, has been further increased to over 2 lakh in the state Wednesday. So far, over 3.61 crore samples have been tested here. The surveillance work has also been further intensified in the state.
Focused vaccination process was started on Thursday and several media persons got their first doses. So far, 66.88 lakh people have got their first shot and 11.79 lakh have also got the second dose.
From next week, the government is planning to start vaccination at government or private institutions, those which are willing, with over 100 employees.
