Uttar Pradesh, home to 23 crore people, reported 1,908 cases of novel coronavirus positive cases during the past 24 hours, registering a decline of 95 per cent from its peak as the number of fresh cases dropped below 2,000 on Saturday for the first time in nearly two months.
With the reduction in new COVID-19 cases and a drop in the transmission rate, UP also recorded a sharp slide in the number of active cases to 41,214 since the peak on April 30.
The cases have reduced by 87 per cent in the span of 30 days, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said here on Sunday.
On the other hand, states like Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, despite not having even half of the population of Uttar Pradesh, have a heavy load of active COVID-19 cases at 2,76,573, 2,33,034 and 3,12,386, respectively. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease in the last 24 hours in UP stood at 6,713, pushing the state’s recovery rate to 96.4 per cent. There are only two districts -- Lucknow and Meerut -- where the fresh cases are in triple digits of 109 and 112, respectively. Gorakhpur reported highest 15 COVID-19 deaths followed by 12 deaths each in Prayagraj and Kushinagar.
“The Yogi Model of Test-Trace-Treat testifying its success in curbing the spread of coronavirus has resulted in the fall of test positivity rate (TPR) of Uttar Pradesh to 0.5 per cent, the lowest so far,” Prasad said and added that the TPR had remained below 1 per cent for five straight days now.
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, with the high number of fresh cases, have miserably failed to register any reduction in their daily test positivity rates that stand at 19 per cent, 16.4 per cent and 16.51 per cent respectively. As part of its aggressive testing T3 Regime, Uttar Pradesh on Saturday conducted 3,40,096 Covid tests, out of which, 1,42,751 were through RT-PCR. With this the number of total tests conducted so far stands at 4,90,96,625. In an encouraging sign, the number of patients in home isolation in the state has also reduced to 23,419.
“This is the result of timely provision of free medical treatment, medicine kits and regular teleconsultation,” Prasad said.