UP first state to conduct over 75 lakh Covid tests

Uttar Pradesh became the first state in the country to conduct 75 lakh Covid tests with an average of around 1.50 lakh tests per day even as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath fixed a target of two lakh tests per day by September-end.

The government officials also claimed that UP was at the fifth place among the states in per capita Covid patients with 3.05 lakh positive cases among the 22.5 crore population.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said here on Sunday that the state had reached the 75 lakh Covid test-mark, which was a milestone, adding that the number of tests was expected was reach one crore by September-end.

“At present, the average testing is around 1.50 lakh per day, but now Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has fixed a target of two lakh tests per day. This target could be achieved by the end of this month,” he said.

Referring to Covid testing in other states, Awasthi said in Maharashtra, the total tests done so far were 51.6 lakh, in Andhra Pradesh this figure was 45 lakh, in Tamil Nadu it was 58 lakh, in Delhi it was 20 lakh, in West Bengal it was 24 lakh and in Bihar it was 47.7 lakh.

He said the high point was that the recovery rate of the COVID-19 patients in UP had increased to 76.40 per cent while the fatality rate had come down to 1.40 per cent.

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said there were 68,122 active coronavirus cases in the state while the number of recovered COVID-19 patients was 2,39,485 which included 5,958 people discharged from hospitals on Sunday.

He said on Friday, 1,47,082  sample tested.

Prasad said there were 36,329 asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in home isolation. He said till date, 1,53,543 COVID-19 patients had preferred home isolation out of which 1,17,214 had recovered so far.

Prasad said under surveillance and contact tracing, over 3.46 lakh health workers’ teams reached 1,01,868 areas and visited 2.30 crore houses and checked and contacted over 11.47 crore people.

Meanwhile, Prasad said as per the fresh guidelines issued by the Centre for post-Covid patients, all people who had recovered from COVID-19 should follow the norms of hand washing, social distancing, wearing face mask and they should go for light exercise and  increase their immunity power.