UP records 172 deaths even as active Covid-19 cases down by 68%: Govt

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday said the number of active coronavirus cases in the state has come down by 68 per cent since the peak, while 172 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours.

"The recovery rate of the state is improving. It is now 92.5 per cent. The active cases in the state in the past 20 days have come down by 68 per cent," Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Navneet Sehgal told reporters here.

During the peak on April 30, there were 3,10,783 active COVID-19 cases in the state which have now come down to 1,06,276, he said.

Of the current active cases, 72,547 people are currently in home isolation, Sehgal said.

In the past 24 hours, 7,735 fresh COVID cases were reported which took the total case tally to 16,59,212, he said.

A total of 17,668 people have recovered from the infection in the past 24 hours, taking the total recoveries in the state to 15,34,176, the official said.

With 172 more deaths, the fatality count in Uttar Pradesh rose to 18,760, he further said.

Of the new deaths, not more than 15 were reported from Varanasi, 12 from Lucknow and 11 from Saharanpur, as per a health bulletin issued here.

As far as fresh cases are concerned, not more than 1,003 cases were reported from Ghaziabad, 892 from Gorakhpur, 427 from Meerut, 394 from Gautam Buddha Nagar, 287 from Saharanpur, 286 from Lucknow and 229 cases from Varanasi, it said.

On Thursday, 2.89 lakh COVID tests were conducted in the state, Sehgal said, adding that so far over 4.61 crore tests, of which two crore were RT-PCR, have been conducted.

He said that so far, over 1.58 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the state.

More than 1.25 crore people have received the first dose while over 33 lakh got the second dose also, he added.

Sehgal said that of the 98,386 villages in the state, coronavirus has been reported in only 28,742 villages and the state government is actively distributing medical kits in rural areas.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also directed officials to initiate "Mera Ward Corona Mukt Ward" (COVID-free ward) campaign, he said.