Besides 35 from Agra, 11 new cases were reported from Saharanpur, five each from Basti and Meerut, four each from Lucknow, Noida and Firozabad, three from Kasganj, two from Azamgarh and one each from Etawah and Mathura. ((File Photo/Representational))

At a time when the coronavirus containment model of Agra — the first virus cluster in the country — is being discussed and applauded, the number of positive cases in the district reached 139 on Monday with 35 new cases.

The state also witnessed the highest single-day jump with 75 fresh cases in last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 558. Besides 35 from Agra, 11 new cases were reported from Saharanpur, five each from Basti and Meerut, four each from Lucknow, Noida and Firozabad, three from Kasganj, two from Azamgarh and one each from Etawah and Mathura.

Of the 75 cases, 35 are linked to Tablighi Jamaat’s Delhi congregation, taking the total number of such patients to at least 307 in the state, the state government said.

“Out of the 35 new cases in Agra, 14 are from Fatehpur Sikri area and all are family members of a person linked to Tablighi Jamaat’s Delhi Markaz congregation,” Agra District Magistrate Prabhu Narain Singh told The Indian Express, adding that eight more new cases from the district are also linked to Tablighi Jamaat.

The remaining of the 35 are either linked to a private hospital that was sealed in the wake of 20 patients, health workers and their contacts testing positive or contacts of previous patients.

“Paras Hospital is becoming a major hotspot in the district, and most of other cases are from there. The cases of Paras Hospital started after a woman was admitted to the hospital on March 26 with kidney-related issue. The needed precautions were not taken by the hospital. We sealed the hospital on April 6 after getting information about the infection. Before that a woman, who was a cleaning staff at the hospital, went to her home and infected eight members of her family. I have discussed in detail with our officials, including the district SSP, and made a plan to identify all primary, secondary and tertiary contacts so that we can break the chain,” the DM added.

So far, more than 2,264 samples have been tested in the district.

The fresh five cases from Basti district are reportedly the contacts of a 25-year-old youth who had died at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College last month and was later confirmed positive for coronavirus.

The district has so far tested more than 270 contacts of the deceased youth, Basti District Magistrate Ashutosh Niranjan said.

With Kasganj and Etawah districts registering their first cases, a total of 43 districts in the state are now affected by coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Pilibhit became the first district to become “coronavirus free” after two of the patients there recovered, and no new cases were reported in the district.

“The good news for us is that there there were two cases in Pilibhit with no addition till now, and both have now recovered and discharged from the hospital,” Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.

Also, at least 50 patients have recovered so far — 13 from Noida, 10 from Agra, nine from Meerut, seven from Ghaziabad, six from Lucknow, two from Pilibhit and one each from Kanpur, Shamli and Lakhimpur Kheri.

Earlier in the day, Principal Secretary (Health) Prasad said that a pool of doctors has been created for tele-consultation service. “The state government has also started the facility of tele-consultation through their helpline —18001805145 — and help of retired and working doctors is being taken for the same. A pool of doctors has been made for the same. The facility started today and several persons have already benefited from the same. We have made an arrangement that any retired doctor, be that from government services or military services, can get their registration for voluntary service. Patients are making calls to our call centre and we are connecting them to the doctors,” Prasad said.

Amid several instances of hospital staff getting infected, the state government issued an infection prevention protocol for hospitals running for non-coronavirus patients. The hospital doctors were also given training on infection prevention protocol during a two-hour session on Monday.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi, meanwhile, said that 85% of the total number of cases have been reported from the 208 hotspots in the state. Speaking to mediapersons, Awasthi said that 146 hotspots were identified in 15 districts in the first phase, while in remaining 25 districts affected with coronavirus 62 hotspots have been identified. He also said that about 9.78 lakh people live in about 1.71 lakh houses in the hotspots areas of 15 districts that were sealed in the first phase.