With 992 fresh cases, Uttar Pradesh sees Covid surge again

Expressing concern over the surge in Covid cases, health experts urged the Uttar Pradesh government to take strict measures to check the spread of infection.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh witnessed a major surge in Covid cases on Tuesday, with 992 fresh cases reported within 24 hours. The tally of the active cases crossed the 3,000 mark and rose to 3,173, close to the number of active cases on June 26 when there were 3,197 active cases in the state.

Uttar Pradesh also recorded increase in the Omicron variant of Covid-19 (Pic for representation)

The state also recorded increase in the Omicron variant of coronavirus. Within 24 hours, 18 fresh cases of Omicron were reported in the state, taking the total tally to 26. The state government had stepped up the genome sequencing of samples to identify the new variant, said additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad.

According to the data from the state health department, UP’s active caseload crossed the 1000-mark on Saturday, 2000-mark on Monday and 3,000 on Tuesday.

The spread of the Covid cases in the state can be gauged from the fact that on December 15, there was no active case in 42 districts and no new case was reported in 70 districts. Within 20 days, Covid cases have been reported in 73 districts. In the past 24 hours, no fresh or active case has been reported in merely two districts of Bundelkhand region- Chitrakoot and Mahoba.

Again, the urban hubs registered spike in cases with Gautam Buddha Nagar reporting new cases taking the tally of the active cases to 597, Ghaziabad reported 174 fresh cases with 561active cases, Lucknow reported 150 new cases with 309 active cases, Meerut had 102 new cases with 112 active cases, Agra reported 24 fresh cases with 108 active cases, Varanasi reported 32 new cases and had 104 active cases, Prayagraj reported 37 fresh cases and had 73 active cases and Kanpur reported 35 fresh cases and 55 active cases.

Expressing concern over the surge in Covid cases, health experts urged the state government to take strict measures to check the spread. Former president of Lucknow branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr PK Gupta said cases were doubling up and this could be an indication of a third wave. The coming 15 days might see surge in the Covid graph in the state as being witnessed in Delhi and Maharashtra. The people should take utmost precaution and follow the Covid protocol to protect themselves from infection. Any event that required mass gathering should be restricted across the state. The state government should activate the logistics in the health facility in government and private hospitals, he said.

“A total of 1,66,033 Covid samples were tested in the past 24 hours and 992 new cases were reported,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary, medical and health in a press statement.

Uttar Pradesh had tested 9,36,00,940 Covid samples and the infection rate was 1.83% with a total 1,71, 4096 samples testing positive till now. The recovery rate in UP was 98.5%. In the past 24-hours 77 patients recovered and a total 16,88,007 patients had recovered till now, he said.