Lucknow:
The number of coronavirus cases increased to 61 in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday after 11 people tested positive for the disease, a senior health official said.
“Cases of infection have come from 13 of the 75 districts of the state (till now),” Principal Secretary Medical Education and Health Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters.
In a statement, State Surveillance Officer for the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme Vikasendu Agrawal said 11 new patients have been confirmed as positive for COVID-19.
“These are: nine at Noida, one at Varanasi and one at Meerut,” he said, adding that the total number of samples found positive are 61 now.
There are 27 positive cases in Noida, 10 in Agra, five in Ghaziabad, eight in Lucknow, two each in Varanasi and Pilibhit, and and one each at Lakhimpur Kheri, Moradabad, Kanpur, Jaunpur, Shamli, Baghpat and Meerut, he said.
“Fourteen patients (seven in Agra, two in Ghaziabad, four in Noida and one in Lucknow) have been declared recovered and discharged,” Agarwal said.
Principal Secretary Prasad said, “Eight laboratories are working to test COVID-19. Of this, three are in Lucknow, while one each has been set up in Aligarh, Varanasi, Meerut, Etawah and Gorakhpur.”
The ninth laboratory will be soon set up in Jhansi, he told reporters.
So far, as many as 2,196 samples have been tested of which 1,993 have tested negative. Testing of 148 samples is underway, Prasad said.
He added that for treatment of COVID-19 patients in the state, more than 5,000 isolation beds have been made available.
“Efforts are on to take this count to 15,000 in the public sector. Talks with private hospitals has also been done in most of the districts of the state,” Prasad said.
The principal secretary informed, “For treatment of COVID-19, one community health centre will be made a dedicated COVID hospital after transferring the patients of the said community health centre and others. Training of the staff, which will be posted in this hospital is going on.”
He said that any person, who is experiencing the symptoms of the disease, can call on CM Helpline 1,076. Along with this, the 18001805145 helpline of the health department can also be consulted.
