Lucknow: Covid tally breaches 40,000-mark

LUCKNOW: With the transmission rate increasing with each passing day, the city’s Covid-19 tally since the outbreak breached the 40,000 mark on Monday. Of these, nearly one-third cases have been recorded in the first two weeks of September.
A total of 992 new cases were recorded in 24 hours, taking the caseload to 40,172. Of these 12,744 (31.7%) infections have taken place this month at an average of 910 per day. In comparison, the daily average increase in August was 620 and July 229.

Experts said that since a patient on an average infects four contacts, the rate of transmission is expected to increase further in coming days and may touch 1,500-2,000 cases daily by the end of the month. They blamed poor contact tracing and neglect of precautions by people for the surge.
The exponential rate of growth can be gauged from the fact that the first 10,000 cases were reported in 140 days, while the next in just 16 days. The 10,000 infections thereafter were recorded in 14 days and the last 10,000 have come in merely 10 days.
Of the total caseload, 29,972 (74.6%) have recovered, including 885 on Monday, but at the same time there were 524 (1.3%) deaths.
As of now, 9,676 patients are ‘active’ cases, of which nearly 1,800 are under treatment in hospitals, while others are recuperating in home isolation. Condition of nearly 800 patients is serious, of which 300 are critical. As a result, critical care facilities in various Covid hospitals are working to full capacity.
A senior professor of medicine in KGMU said that the peak of the pandemic in the city is expected in October. Thereafter, it may decline a bit by December and remain stable for two months before the second wave arrives next year in February, he claimed.
Meanwhile, BBAU’s administrative block was closed for a day for sanitisation on Monday. “Since most of the work is being done online, closure made no impact on university functioning,” said BBAU spokesperson Rachna Gangwar.