With 658 fresh Covid-19 cases, Uttarakhand crosses 18,000-mark

The state also reported 11 deaths due to Covid related complications on Saturday. With this, the death toll jumped to 250 in the state.

With 658 fresh Covid-19 cases, Uttarakhand on Saturday crossed the 18,000-mark, taking the tally of total cases to 18,571.

With 658 fresh Covid-19 cases, Uttarakhand on Saturday crossed the 18,000-mark, taking the tally of total cases to 18,571. (File photo for representation)

The state also reported 11 deaths of Covid-19 positive patients. With this, the death toll jumped to 250 in the state. Out of the 250 deaths, 73 cases were of deaths due to coronavirus, while the others died due to comorbidities.

Of the 11 deaths reported on Saturday, five died due to coronavirus while others died due to comorbidities.

According to the health bulletin released by the state on Saturday evening, maximum 179 fresh cases were reported from Dehradun district followed by Haridwar (161), US Nagar (90), Tehri (64), Almora (54), Nainital (45), Uttarkashi (19), Bageshwar (16), Pithoragarh (11), Pauri (6), Champawat (6), Chamoli (5) and Rudraprayag (2).

Haridwar district has reported the maximum 4,454 Covid-19 positive cases so far, followed by Dehradun (3816), US Nagar (3520) and Nainital (2558). Whereas, 400 Covid-19 patients were discharged from different hospitals in the state on Saturday with a maximum of 187 from US Nagar district.

The rate of doubling of cases based on the last seven days now stands at 23.41 days, while the infection rate is 5.32%. The state has so far tested over 3.76 lakh samples of which results of over 19,000 are awaited.

Uttarakhand currently has 386 containment zones in seven districts including maximum 316 in Haridwar district.

To effectively fight the pandemic, the state government has operationalised 17 dedicated Covid Hospitals and 381 Covid Care Centres (CCC) across the state. Recently the state government has started home isolation of asymptomatic Covid-19 positive patients.

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand government on Saturday evening issued an order stating that “upper limit fixed for certain categories of inbound people to Uttarakhand are removed…”

The order was issued as a modification of an earlier order released on August 4. The latest order further stated, “…wherever RT-PCR test is mentioned (in previous order) may be read as RT-PCR test by Indian Council of Medical Research authorised lab or TrueNAT test.”

Following the directions of the Central government, the state government on Saturday said that all inbound persons will have to mandatorily register on the website of Dehradun Smart City Limited.

“Though the registration is mandatory, no permission/approval/e-pass shall be required for such movement. The registration document shall necessarily be verified at the border check post, while the inbound person is making entry in to the state. The registration is made compulsory to make the contact tracing of the inbound person easy, if, in case, she/he is found Covid-19 positive latter,” the order said.