Lucknow:
Seventy-six more people died from coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh on Friday as the state reported its highest single-day spike of 7,103 cases, pushing the infection numbers to over 2.99 lakh, a health bulletin said.
So far, the state has reported 4,282 fatalities.
UP Minister of State for Jails, Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki, is among those who tested positive for the infection on Friday. He disclosed this on his Twitter handle.
Meanwhile, the Friday figures surpassed the Thursday tally of 7,042, another record spike since the pandemic broke out in the state.
The total number of COVID-19 cases has risen to 2,99,045 while 7,103 fresh cases were reported in the past 24 hours, the health bulletin said.
Among the 76 fresh deaths, maximum 16 took place in Lucknow; seven each in Kanpur and Allahabad; and four from Gorakhpur, the bulletin said.
As far as fresh cases are concerned, state capital Lucknow recorded the maximum 1,181 infections; Kanpur 413; Allahabad 341; Gorakhpur 246; Varanasi 237; Ghaziabad 222; Gautam Buddh Nagar 204 and Meerut 259 besides others, it said.
So far, maximum 511 people have died in Kanpur; followed by 496 in Lucknow; 204 in Allahabad; 200 in Varanasi; 174 in Gorakhpur; and 161 in Meerut, it added
Additional Chief Secretary Amit Mohan Prasad said, “The total number of active cases in the state now stands at 67,321 while 2,27,442 patients have been treated and discharged after recovery. In past 24 hours, 76 persons have died due to the disease, he said.
The officer said the positivity rate stands at 4.14 per cent which is half of the national average of 8.44 per cent.
Earlier, Prasad said of the 67,321 active cases, 34,920 are in home isolation.
“So far 1,44,147 persons have opted for home isolation in the state. Of them, 1,09,227 have completed the isolation period,” he said.
Prasad said over 72 lakh COVID tests have been performed in Uttar Pradesh, which has become the first state to conduct that many tests.
On Thursday, over 1.50 lakh tests were conducted, including over 50,000 RT-PCR ones in government labs, he added.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Jails, Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki, said he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in home isolation.
“After detecting primary symptoms of corona, I underwent a test on September 9, whose results came positive. As per medical advice, I have isolated myself at home,” he said in a tweet.
In another tweet, he urged the people who came in his contact in the past one week to get themselves tested.
Besides Jaiki, several ministers in the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh Government have tested positive for the virus.
Two of them, Chetan Chauhan and Kamal Rani Varun, succumbed to the infection.
The other ministers who contracted the infection are Siddharth Nath Singh, Rajendra Pratap Singh, Dharam Singh Saini, Upendra Tiwari, Atul Garg, Baldev Singh Aulakh, Mohsin Raza, Satish Mahana, Pratap Singh, Mahendra Singh and Brajesh Pathak.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday directed senior officials to hold a meeting with the authorities in Lucknow to chalk out an effective strategy to check the spread of COVID-19 in the city.
He also asked officials to increase the bed capacity in COVID hospitals of Kanpur Nagar.
