With 3 more positive patients, Gautam Buddh Nagar forms 1/3rd of UP's COVID-19 cases

Three more persons -- two women in Noida and one man in Greater Noida -- tested positive for coronavirus on Friday, taking the total cases in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar to 17, officials said.

Four patients have already been treated and discharged, bringing the active number of cases in the district to 13, the officials said.

UP has so far recorded 50 COVID-19 cases, according to government officials in Lucknow, who have put the total number of cases in Gautam Buddh Nagar at 18 cases, even as the Health Department officials here said the tally was 17.

Sources said one person tested positive at a private laboratory and his sample was sent again for assessment and the report would be out by Saturday.

On Friday, two women, a mother-daughter duo aged 55 and 33, residents of Sector 137, and a 36-year-old man who lives in Omnicron-3 of Greater Noida tested positive for coronavirus, district Chief Medical Officer Anurag Bhargava said.

"All patients have been admitted at the Super Specialty Pediatric Hospital and Postgraduate Teaching Institute in Sector 30 of Noida," Bhargava said.

Health Department officials suspected that all three cases could be related to the same UK-based carrier who may have already infected five others working for a fire safety firm in Sector 135.

The district administration has temporarily sealed their residential society and the sector concerned for a period of 48 hours to carry out sanitisation work there.

"No entry into or exit from the society or the sector would be allowed during this period except for emergencies," District Magistrate B N Singh said in an order.

"A total 441 samples have been sent for COVID-19 test so far of which 17 have tested positive, 329 negative and result for 96 was awaited," the department said, adding that 1,803 people were currently under surveillance across Noida and Greater Noida.

Also, 158 people were quarantined -- 36 of them at a Gautam Buddh University hostel and rest in special isolation facilities at hospitals in Noida and Greater Noida, the Health Department said.

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 17 in the country on Friday and the number of coronavirus cases climbed to 724, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Also, 66 people were either cured or discharged, it added. Besides, Gautam Buddh Nagar in UP, Agra has reported 10 cases, Lucknow 8, Ghaziabad 5, Pilibhit 2, while Lakhimpur Kheri, Moradabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Jaunpur, Shamli and Baghpat each one, according to state government officials.

Total 14 patients -- Agra (7), Ghaziabad (2), Noida (4), Lucknow (1) -- have been declared recovered and discharged, they added.