Even as a slight improvement in the recovery rate (61 per cent) – a total of 8,610 patients have been discharged from hospital so far – has been observed, the spurt in the cases took the number of active cases to 5,064 on Monday. Express photo by Vishal Srivastav
Continuing with the last week’s trend, Uttar Pradesh reported 480 new coronavirus cases and 18 deaths linked to the viral infection in the last 24 hours. With this, the total Covid-19 count in the state jumped to 14,095 cases and 417 deaths.
Agra, Meerut, Kanpur Nagar, Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr reported two deaths each on Monday, followed by Jaunpur, Hapur, Pratapgarh, Hardoi, Maharajganj, Jalaun, Mainpuri and Etah with one each. So far, the maximum 66 deaths have been reported from Agra followed by 60 in Meerut.
Even as a slight improvement in the recovery rate (61 per cent) – a total of 8,610 patients have been discharged from hospital so far – has been observed, the spurt in the cases took the number of active cases to 5,064 on Monday.
Gautam Buddh Nagar, compirsing Noida and Greater Noida, recorded 60 new cases of infection and became the second district after Agra to have more than 1,000 cases. While Agra has recorded 1,057 cases, Noida is right behind with 1,053. Next in the list is Kanpur Nagar with 724 cases, Meerut with 666, Ghaziabad with 646 and Lucknow with 638 in total.
Lucknow reported 42 new cases. Sources said out of them, at least 27 are linked to the CM’s Covid helpline centre which has already become a massive hotspot of the infection. The centre had reported first coronavirus case on May 5 when a woman staff member got infected from a family member working in a Covid hospital. Since then, around 80 people connected to the centre have tested positive.
Officials said that over 600 employees and people who visited the office have been traced and asked to put themselves under home quarantine. The authorities connected to the centre are looking into all possibilities including calling in employees who have not visited the centres since the spread started, and resume work at the centre after proper sanitisation of the building.
Meanwhile, the Lucknow health department has written a letter to the DM requesting to include Parag Dairy at LDA Colony, Surendra Nagar Ismail Nagar and Alisha Nagar Sector – I in the list of containment zones, while CCA Nagar Daroga Kheda and Monarch Apartment in New Hyderabad to be removed from the list. With this, the state Capital will have 26 containment zones.
Besides, 32 new cases were reported in Sambhal, 25 in Meerut, 19 in Kanpur Nagar, 16 in Agra, 15 in Ghaziabad, 14 in Moradabad, 13 in Hamirpur, 11 each in Bareilly and Aligarh, and 10 each in Saharanpur, Firozabad, Bulandshahr, Ayodhya, Mathura and Hardoi.
According to the state health bulletin, three-fourth of the total positive cases in the state are men. As per the age-wise break-up, more the 52% infected are between 21 and 40 years, followed by 41 and 60 years who constitute 23.63% of the cases. While 17.95% are less than 20 years, rest 6.34% are more than 60 years old.
CM warns of action against negligent state officials
In a terse message to district administrations, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday directed officials to steer clear of negligence over enforcement of the state and Cetnral governments’ guidelines on Unlock 1 and coronavirus protocols such as wearing masks and social distancing. They have been asked to monitor facilities at hospitals.
The chief minister warned of strict action against officers who fail to implement the coronavirus and unlockdown guidelines.
Officials have been put on alert over the spread of “cross border” infection especially in districts such as Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bulandhshahr, Hapur, Baghpat etc.