UP govt says 249 COVID-19 patients in GB Nagar, local officials clarify 236 cases till May 13

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday incorrectly put the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Gautam Buddh Nagar district at 249, health officials here clarified on Thursday.

Six new COVID-19 patients were detected on Wednesday in Gautam Buddh Nagar in western Uttar Pradesh, pushing the number of positive coronavirus cases in the district to 236, according to the officials.

"Fifteen cases shown as new cases on May 13 in Lucknow bulletin are all old cases which have been reported in previous days, whose data has been uploaded in the portal on May 13," Gautam Buddh Nagar Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Deepak Ohri said in a statement.

Along with the statement, the CMO attached a list of the 15 cases that were uploaded on the state government's portal for COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

Gautam Buddh Nagar had 236 positive cases, of which 143 have been cured and discharged, leaving 90 active cases, according to the statistics available till Wednesday 4 pm.

The recovery rate of patients is 60.59 per cent, according to the statistics.

According to officials, 4,376 samples have so far been collected for COVID-19 testing in the district, while 501 people are under institutional quarantine.

Three men, two of them aged 60 years and one 62 years, have died in Gautam Buddh Nagar due to the novel coronavirus, according to the officials.

In terms of number of coronavirus cases, Gautam Buddh Nagar is only behind Agra (791), Lucknow (264), Kanpur (308) and Meerut (274) in Uttar Pradesh, according to the state government's data.

The state has so far recorded 3,758 COVID-19 cases, of which 1,965 have been discharged while 86 patients have died, the data updated till May 13 stated.