LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh on Monday reported eight more coronavirus deaths, taking the toll to 283, while 411 fresh cases pushed the state's infection count to 10,947, officials said.
There are 4,320 active COVID-19 cases in the state, while 6,344 patients have recovered and discharged from hospitals, Principal Secretary Health Amit Mohan Prasad said.
"Of the eight deaths, two were reported from Agra, and one each from Kanpur Nagar, Siddhartnagar, Ayodhya, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur and Auraiya," a health department bulletin said.
So far, Agra has reported 52 deaths, Meerut 38, Firozabad 18, Aligarh and Kanpur Nagar 16 each and Moradabad 11, among others, it said.
Of the 411 fresh COVID-19 cases, 59 were reported from Gautam Budh Nagar, 41 from Ghzaibad, 28 from Bulandshahr, 25 from Kanpur Nagar, 21 from Meerut, 19 from Hapur, 16 each from Lucknow and Agra, 14 from Rae Bareli, 13 from Aligarh 11 each from Jalaun and Gorakhpur, as per the bulletin.
Prasad said 13,236 tests were done on Sunday, which is so far the highest in a day.
The target has been fixed to increase the testing capacity to 15,000 per day, he added.
He said there was an urgent need for people, especially in urban areas, to strictly follow the coronavirus protocol to prevent themselves from the infection as the lockdown restrictions are being eased.
Most of the cases being presently reported are from western districts of the state like those of Meerut division and, therefore, the need of the hour is that people living in cities should be more careful, Prasad said.
The principal secretary said to assess the work of the monitoring committees for the management of COVID-19, four villages each was selected in 18 districts where a large number of migrant workers had returned back.
"We collected 25 samples of the natives in each selected village and the samples were taken from 72 villages for testing.
We also wanted to see how seriously the migrant workers who have returned from other states and the natives already living there had followed the COVID-19 protocol.
"We are happy to inform you that the report of all the samples was negative. This means that the efforts of the monitoring committees and the appeals made by the administration have been successful in making an impact," he said.
Prasad said 13,89,136 migrant workers have been tracked by ASHA workers so far by visiting their homes.
Symptoms were found in 1,299 people and further action is being taken after taking their samples, he added.