Uttar Pradesh reports 2,600 new coronavirus cases, nine fatalities in a day

Uttar Pradesh reported 2,600 new COVID-19 cases and nine fatalities on Thursday, pushing the state's infection tally to 6,19,783 and the death toll to 8,820.

The number of active cases in the state has gone up to 11,918, Additional Chief Secretary, Heath, Amit Mohan Prasad said, adding that 6,722 patients are in home-isolation, 287 in private hospitals and the rest in government facilities.

A total of 5,99,045 people have so far recovered from the infection and been discharged from hospitals in the state, he said.

So far over 3.49 crore samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the state, including over 1.24 lakh on Wednesday, Prasad said.

He said vaccination of people above 45 years of age began in the state on Thursday, and the inoculation drive was going on in over 5,000 centres.

Prasad asked people above 45 to get themselves registered through the dedicated portal for vaccination, and said those who did not have the facility can directly approach the inoculation centres.

Stressing on the importance of the vaccination, he said over 11 lakh people have so far taken their second doses and almost 99.5 per cent of them have been found to be safe.

Prasad said almost half of the new infections are being reported from rural areas at present and stressed on activating the 'gram nigrani samitis' and 'mohalla nigrani samitis' to control the spread of the virus.