Uttar Pradesh: Steep rise in new cases, 357 succumb to virus

LUCKNOW: A steep rise of over 5,000 cases was recorded in UP in the past 24 hours. A total 31,165 new cases were recorded on Wednesday against 25,858 new cases on Tuesday.
The loss of lives due to Covid-19 continued to remain a cause of concern for health officials as 357 more persons succumbed to the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths in the state to 14,151.
Health officials, however, said that number of recoveries is steadily rising. In fact, the number of recoveries in the past six days has been more than the number of new cases.
On Wednesday, over 40,000 persons were declared recovered. Meanwhile, calling the steady rise in recoveries a positive sign, additional chief secretary, Navneet Sehgal told TOI that the pattern was noted in 52 districts of the state.
“The strategy of aggressive testing and movement restrictions seem to be paying dividends. But sustained efforts at the level of every individual are essential to containment. Adherence to the prevention protocol at all levels is a must,” he said.
The trend has reflected on the state’s overall recovery rate as well. While the recovery rate on April 15 was 83.7%, it dipped to 71.5% on April 25. However, the trend of more recoveries than new cases over the past six days has brought the recovery rate to 80.2%.
The number of active cases has also declined on account of the surge in recoveries. As on date, 2,62,474 active cases are there in the state. Of these, 2.12 lakh are under home isolation.
Experts attribute the trend to revised discharge policy which mandated discharge of patients upon resolution of the symptoms unlike before. In addition to this, they said that the 14-day cycle of the virus – which would have started in the mid of April — had completed over the weekend.