LUCKNOW: Ramped-up Covid-19 testing is revealing what has been feared in Uttar Pradesh: the state has registered a huge jump of around 145 per cent in coronavirus cases this month, registering 58,117 cases till Thursday, with the highest single-day spike of 2,529 cases.
Of the total, 35,803 or 61.5% of the patients have recovered and 1,298 or 2.2% have died.
The number of active infections in the state is 21,003, which accounts for 36 per cent of the state tally.
The state has scaled up daily sample testing to over 54,897 in the last 24 hours.
“CM Yogi Adityanath has told health authorities to further increase the daily testing to one lakh. The testing can include rapid antigen technique. The CM wants a large population covered for testing so that the fatality rate comes down,” said Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi on Thursday.
An analysis shows more than half of the cases in the state were added in July alone.
The total number of cases till June 30 was 23,750 while 34,367 cases were reported this month.
District-wise assessment of cases indicates that over 49% of the cases in UP are from 13 big cities of the state, including Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, Aligarh, Mathura, Meerut, Jhansi, Agra and Prayagraj.
Additional Chief Secretary (Health & Family Welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad said the surge is maximum in big cities. In terms of deaths (till Thursday), Kanpur leads (toll 142) followed by Meerut (100) and Agra (97). Agra has topped the chart with a fatality rate of 6.70% among 75 districts of the state, according to the state health department data updated till July 22.
The city has recorded 1,446 cases and 97 deaths since the pandemic started in the state. The state’s first case was reported from Agra on March 2.
Agra’s fatality rate is followed by Firozabad (6.50%), Pratapgarh (5.52%), Meerut (5.48%) and Kanpur (5.11%). However, state capital Lucknow, which is now topping the state tally with over 3,000 active cases, is at the 52nd position with a 1.28% fatality rate.
Shahjahanpur has the lowest death percentage of 0.24, according to the analysis done by the state health department. Pilibhit, Lakhimpur and Kasganj have reported no deaths.