Uttar Pradesh reports 18,125 new coronavirus cases, 329 fatalities

Uttar Pradesh recorded 18,125 fresh COVID-19 cases that raised the infection count to 15,63,238, while 329 new fatalities pushed the death toll from the pandemic to 16,372, officials said on Wednesday.

On the bright side, the number of active cases in the state has come down by over 1.04 lakh in the past 11 days, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said. The COVID-19 recovery rate now stands at 85.7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, he said.

On April 30, there were about 3.10 lakh active cases, while the number currently stands at 2,06,615, the official said.

With this, the total number of patients in the state who have recovered from the infection has risen to 13,40,251, Prasad added.

So far, over 4.36 crore samples have been tested in the state, including more than 2.45 lakh samples that were tested on Tuesday, he said.

Among the fresh cases, 1,52,725 are in home isolation, Prasad said.

He said that following the 'track, test and treat' policy, surveillance teams of the state government have reached 3.47 crore households, covering a total of 16.73 crore people.

Prasad said while 1.11 crore people have been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, 29.35 lakh have received the second shot.

The programme of vaccinating people in the 18-44 age group is also going on in the state and so far 2.16 lakh in this category have been administered vaccines, he said.