Thirty-two percent of villages in Uttar Pradesh have reported positive cases of COVID-19, a senior State official said on Wednesday.
So far, 28,742 villages in the State reported positive cases during a testing drive in 89,512 villages, said Amit Mohan Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary, Health.
There was no COVID-19 infection in 68% of these villages, said the official, implying that cases were reported in the remaining 32%
“68% of our villages are still safe from the infection,” Mr. Prasad said. “It is our effort to ensure that the infection does not reach there.”
The State meanwhile continued to see a drop in the fresh cases — it recorded 7,336 new positive cases — but the daily death count continued to linger over 280. U.P. recorded 282 new deaths, according to the State Health Department.
U.P. govt. to focus on testing in rural areas
The focus of the Uttar Pradesh government is on testing for fresh COVID-19 cases in rural areas of the State to arrest the spread of the virus in the villages, said Amit Mohan Prasad, Additional Chief Secretary, Health.
The State government tested 2.99 lakh samples in the last 24 hours, its highest single-day figure.
Mr. Prasad stated that the recovery rate in the State had gone up to 91.4% while the active cases had been reduced to 1.23 lakh.
About 20 lakh medicine kits had been distributed across districts in the last three days, he said.
The U.P. police, meanwhile, said that it was carrying out 24-hour patrols of the rivers to prevent people from disposing bodies in them.
So far, police have recovered 16 bodies floating in the river in Ghazipur, 11 in Ballia, eight in Chandauli, seven in Varanasi and one each in Kanpur and Hamirpur.
The State’s focus on the rural areas coincides with the discovery of floating bodies, suspected by many to be of COVID-19 victims but still officially unverified, in the Ganga and other rivers.
U.P. tested 2.99 lakh samples in the last 24 hours, its highest till day in that period. Mr. Prasad said the government’s focus was on testing in the rural areas to arrest the spread of the virus in the villages.
“The infection in the rural areas is not so high as of now,” he said.
The official also stated that the recovery rate in the State had gone up to 91.4% while the active cases had been reduced to 1.23 lakh.
Mr. Prasad said that even though the active cases had come down, 20 lakh medicine kits had been distributed across districts in the last three days as part of the drive to trace symptomatic people in rural areas.
U.P. Police, meanwhile, said that it was carrying out 24-hour patrols of the rivers to prevent people from disposing bodies into them. Till date, the police said, it had recovered 16 bodies floating in the river in Ghazipur, 11 in Ballia, eight in Chandauli, seven in Varanasi and one each in Kanpur and Hamirpur.
The final rites of the bodies were carried out as per customs, police said.