News Analysis India

Tag: UP coronavirus

  • 53 new COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh, one succumbs in Mathura

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Fifty-three more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh, bringing the infection count to 17,08,057 on Thursday, while the death toll climbed to 22,743 with one fresh fatality, a health bulletin said.

    The latest death was reported from Mathura, it said.

    Fifty-six people were also discharged in the last 24 hours after recovering from the infection, Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said.

    The state’s COVID-19 recovery count has reached 16,84,286, he said, adding the number of active cases in Uttar Pradesh stands at 1028.

    The state now has a recovery rate of 98.6 per cent, he said So far, over 6.33 crore samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the state, including 2.34 lakh tested the previous day, Prasad said.

    About the ongoing Covid vaccination, he said a total of 4.20 crore doses were administered in the state, including over 3.51 crore who took the first dose of the vaccine.

    Meanwhile, former UP governor Ram Naik has praised the “consistent efforts and proactive approach” of the state government towards eradicating COVID-19 and said that it was “an example for Maharashtra to follow”.

    The BJP leader appreciated the efforts made by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the government for the management of COVID-19 as compared to Maharashtra, “which is not even half of UP’s population”.

    “UP’s victory in fight against COVID-19 is unparalleled. Despite being the most populous state, UP accounts for just 0.29 per cent of the active case count in India whereas Maharashtra accounts for 24.55 per cent,” Naik said in a statement issued here.

    Comparing the Covid situation in both the states, Naik underscored that while at least seven districts of Uttar Pradesh have become COVID-free, “Maharashtra provides no such data that could clearly describe the current Covid situation in the state”.

    Emphasising that Maharashtra needs to emulate UP on Covid control management, Naik said that by leading in terms of tests, vaccination and by controlling the virus spread, “UP has set an example which Maharashtra needs to follow”.

    “Rather than presenting a false picture of managing COVID-19 in Maharashtra, the Uddhav Thackeray government must implement measures on ground-level to improve the condition,” the former UP governor said.

  • COVID-19: 238 deaths take Uttar Pradesh’s toll to 18,590; case tally at 16,51,532

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday said the number of active COVID-19 cases in the state has come down by over 62 per cent since its peak on April 30.

    The state in the past 24 hours has recorded 238 fresh deaths, which took the toll to 18,590, while 6,725 new cases pushed the tally to 16,51,532, Aditional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad, told reporters.

    In the same time period, 13,590 people recovered from the disease, the official said.

    “The recovery rate of the state is improving. It is now 91.8 per cent. The active cases in the state in past 20 days have come down by 62.5 per cent,” he said.

    On April 30, there were 3,10,783 active cases which have now come down to 1,16,434, Prasad said.

    “Currently, there are 1,16,434 active cases in the state and 15,16,508 people have recovered from COVID-19. Among the active cases, 82,801 are in home isolation,” he said.

    Of the fresh deaths, the highest 21 was reported from Lucknow, 16 from Varanasi , 15 from Ghazipur, 12 from Agra, 11 each from Kanpur and Meerut, and nine from Gorakhpur, a health bulletin issued here said.

    As far as fresh cases are concerned, the highest 442 was reported from Meerut, 381 from Varanasi, 364 from Ghaziabad, 331 from Gorakhpur, 353 from Lucknow, it said.

    Prasad said 2.91 lakh COVID-19 tests were conducted on Wednesday and so far, over 4.58 crore tests have been conducted in the state. He said under the anti-coronavirus vaccination drive, over 1.56 crore doses have been administered. More than 1.23 crore people have got their first dose and over 33 lakh their second dose, he added.

    Prasad said that due to the trace, test and treat policy, surveillance and enforcement of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour cases are coming down in the state.

    In 32 per cent of the villages in the state the COVID infection has spread.

    The state government is actively involved in distributing medical kits in both rural and urban areas, he said.

  • Dead bodies found floating in Ganga in PM Modi’s Varanasi constituency

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: After dead bodies were seen floating in river Ganga in East Uttar Pradesh districts, shallow graves have been reported on the banks of the sacred river in the central parts of the state since the last few days. Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government maintains that the COVID-19 cases and positivity rate in the state is declining fast.

    Just a few days after dozens of dead bodies found floating on the banks of river Ganga in eastern districts of Ghazipur, Ballia and Chandauli, at least seven bodies (five males and two females) were found floating near Sujabad village in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Thursday.

    Confirming the development, Ved Prakash Rai, the station officer of Ramnagar police station of Varanasi district, said “there were a total seven bodies, many of which were partially decomposed, that were found floating near Sujabad village. All the bodies were retrieved from the river and buried safely by following all safety protocols by the local administration.”

    The Sujabad village neighbours Domri village, which has been adopted by PM Modi in 2018 under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.

    Meanwhile, as per informed sources in Ghazipur, Ballia and Chandauli districts of East UP, several dozen bodies (numbering possibly between 70-100) have been found floating in river Ganga on UP-Bihar border in the last few days.

    According to Banwari Lal, a guard deployed near the new bridge coming over the Ganga river between Ballia and Buxar claimed that around 70 bodies have been found floating near the under construction bridge at Bharauli Ghat and adjoining villages in Ballia district (Bihar’s Buxar district located on the opposite banks).”The local administration got them buried with the help of JCB machines,” he said.

    The Ballia district magistrate Aditi Singh, while confirming that many bodies were found floating in the river said, “village pradhans of nearby villages were called to identify the bodies, but as the bodies were badly decomposed, they failed to identify them. Subsequently, the last rites of the bodies were performed by following all safety protocols and the local SDM is looking into the entire matter.”  

    Around 450 km away in Central UP’s Unnao district, dozens of shallow graves have been found in the last few days. Videos of the stray dogs invading and digging the shallow graves too have gone viral.

    READ HERE | COVID-19 cases continue to decline fast in UP, active tally declined by 1.06 lakh in 12 days

    According to Unnao district collector Ravindra Kumar, the graves found in Buxar Ghat (Bighapur) is located in Unnao district, but is very close to Rae Bareli and Fatehpur district also. “Traditionally Buxar Ghat has had a long tradition of people from all three districts not cremating, but burying the human corpses on the riverbank. We’re ensuring that all the bodies being buried are buried deeply and also ensuring that bodies which have been buried in shallow graves be covered properly, to prevent stray animals from invading the graves.”

    Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, after receiving complaints about several bodies found floating in the Ganga river in UP and Bihar. “It (NHRC) has issued notices to the chief secretaries of both the states and the secretary, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, today calling for an action taken report within four weeks,” NHRC statement mentioned.

    Tweeting about the bodies in river Ganga and graves on the riverbanks, Congress national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “Bodies are floating in the Ganga in Ballia and Ghazipur. Reports are coming in of mass burials on the banks of the river in Unnao. Official numbers from cities like Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Kanpur appear to be grossly under-reported.” The Congress leader demanded judicial enquiry headed by a High Court Judge into these events.

  • COVID-19 cases continue to decline fast in UP, active tally declined by 1.06 lakh in 12 days

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government in UP maintained on Thursday that the daily Covid positivity rate — the number of positive cases against the total tests done — continued to remain below 10 percent in Uttar Pradesh for the fourth consecutive day. The rate was at its highest at 16.84 percent on April 24 during the second wave of the pandemic. It has now come down to nearly 7 percent. Recoveries surpassed fresh Covid cases for the twelfth day in a row. A total of 17,775 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, whereas, the number of recoveries was 19,425, which has added to the positive recovery graph of the state. With daily recoveries consistently improving, more than 13,40,251 people have so far won their battle against the deadly virus. With the state managing to flatten the curve and limiting the transmission of the deadly virus, the covid-19 situation in Uttar Pradesh has witnessed significant improvement, as the number of active cases was drastically reduced by nearly 1.06 lakh in the last twelve days with swift recovery of covid patients even in home isolation, the UP government official statement said.The number of active Covid cases in the state has now dropped to nearly 2.04 lakh. The state government with its multi-pronged strategy to contain the virus has been able to restrict the number of cases much below the predicted figures by the experts while cases have started dropping since the beginning of May itself. With the aggressive approach against Covid, UP as per the target of ‘Test, Trace and Treat’ has conducted more than 43 million COVID tests, the most in the country thereby setting an example of successfully managing the pandemic.  A total of 2.53 lakh samples were tested in the last 24 hours.

  • Union minister Santosh Gangwar writes to UP CM, demands better facilities to fight pandemic

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Union minister and eight-time BJP MP from Bareilly seat of Uttar Pradesh, Santosh Gangwar has written a letter to state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath, highlighting problems being faced by COVID patients and their families. The veteran politician of the ruling party has also suggested some measures to improve healthcare facilities in UP and Bareilly district.

    In the letter written on Sunday, Gangwar has particularly mentioned important officers of the state medical system posted in Bareilly not receiving phone calls of the patients and attendants, causing major inconvenience to the patients.  

    The union minister also raised the issue of people storing Oxygen cylinders in their homes as precautionary measures, which was adding to the scarcity of oxygen in Bareilly district. There is an urgent need for identifying such people, who are unnecessarily storing oxygen or are even black-marketing those cylinders.

    He also raised the issue of patients being forced to run from one hospital to another in the name of a referral letter. He suggested the UP CM set up oxygen plants in Bareilly to ease in dealing with the increased demand for oxygen in the state.

    While claiming the black-marketing of essential medical equipment, including BiPap machines, ventilators and other medical equipment used in hospitals, Gangwar suggested the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister that prices of medical equipment should be capped, while private hospitals registered under MSME should be given a discount.

    Just two days back, another BJP MP, the Kanpur Lok Sabha member Satyadev Pachauri had also written a letter to the UP CM, mentioning that COVID-19 patients weren’t getting best treatment and many of them losing their lives outside their homes, outside hospitals or even in ambulances in Kanpur in the want of adequate life saving treatment.

    Pachauri had also suggested that the UP government should make all possible preparations now for the combating the third wave of the fatal viral infection.

    Prior to it, Kaushal Kishor, the BJP MP from Mohanlalganj seat of Lucknow district too had written to the CM raising concern about shortage of medical oxygen, life-saving medicines and other necessary hospital equipment in Lucknow district.

  • UP coronavirus: Employees of essential industries exempted from 35-hour weekly closure 

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: People employed with continuous process industries and those producing essential items like medicines and sanitiser in Uttar Pradesh will be allowed to go to their workplaces during the 35-hour “weekly closure” form Saturday 8 pm till Monday 7 am, an official said.

    The state government also said that marriages on Saturday and Sunday will take place amid restrictions with only 50 people allowed in closed spaces and 100 in open spaces, and organisers have to ensure COVID-appropriate behaviour.

    Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the government on Friday had announced the closure during this period of every week till May 15 and also said those caught for the second time not wearing a mask will be fined Rs 10,000.

    The first time fine was doubled to Rs 1,000.

    In a statement issued here on Saturday, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi said, “The chief minister has directed that during the corona-curfew of 35 hours, all continuous process industries and accordingly, their workers shall be allowed movement to their workplaces.”

    “Further, all industries shall open, except those closed on Sunday for weekly off, and particularly pharmaceutical, sanitizer making and other industries which have a direct role in the fight against COVID-19,” the statement said.

    He added that apart from this, all marriages on Saturday and Sunday will be allowed with restrictions of 50 persons inside closed spaces and 100 persons in open spaces with masks, social distancing and use of sanitisers and other precautions as per standard operating procedures.

    All examinations like that for the National Defence Academy will be allowed during the “weekly closure”.

    Examiners and candidates have to show their identity cards to authorities to go to their exam centres, the official said in the statement.

    Public Transport shall be allowed to run with 50 per cent capacity, especially state transport buses, Awasthi said.

    For funeral services at cremation or burial grounds not more than 20 persons shall be allowed, he said.

    Medical and health-related emergency services will remain open during this “weekly closure”.

  • UP logs record 22,439 Covid cases, night curfew duration extended in 10 districts

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh has decided to extend the night curfew in 10 districts having over 2,000 active cases. The night curfew will now be between 8 pm and 7 am.

    Earlier, the government had imposed a 10 pm-6 am curfew in some places due to the spiralling coronavirus cases. 

    CM Yogi Adityanath instructed the 10 district magistrates to take appropriate measures. 

    The CM also extended the closure of schools from Class 1-12 till May 15.

    UP logged a new high with 22,439 Covid cases and 114 deaths. State capital Lucknow has topped the tally with 5,183 fresh active cases.

    The districts where the period of night curfew has extended are Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Ghaziabad, Noida, Meerut, and Gorakhpur. The decision came into force with “immediate effect”.

    Thursday’s move also meant for the people in National Capital Region (NCR) cities such as Noida and Ghaziabad.

    Meanwhile, the UP Board of Secondary Education has also postponed the exam board till further orders.

    “Due to a steady increase in Covid cases, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to postpone Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations and has said that the new dates will be decided in May after reviewing the situation. For students of Classes 1 to 12, classroom teaching will remain suspended till May 15. No exam will be held during this period. The UP Board Class 10 and Class 12 examinations will be held after May 20 and the new timetable will be decided in the first week of May,” the government has said.

    This is the second time the UP board exams have been deferred this year. The state government had earlier postponed the exams to May 8. The board exams were originally slated to begin on April 24.

  • COVID-19: RT-PCR negative report made mandatory for devotees in Ayodhya, Varanasi

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Ayodhya District administration has made it mandatory for the devotees wanting to visit the Ram Janmabhoomi on Ram Navmi to have RT-PCR negative reports.

    Banning the entry of Ram Bhakts on Ram Navami, falling on April 21, without negative Covid-19 report, Ayodhya DM Anuj Jha said that if required, boundaries of Ayodhya would be sealed and no religious congregations will be allowed on Ram Navami.

    However, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a virtual meeting with the top Mahants, saints  and seers of Ayodhya on Tuesday requesting them to keep the Ram Navmi celebrations a low-key affair in the wake of the strong surge in COIVD-19 cases in the temple town. The CM has appealed to devotees to celebrate Ram Navami at home instead of holding any congregation in Ayodhya or elsewhere.

    Meanwhile, the Ayodhya district administration is expecting a huge influx of pilgrims on April 21 to celebrate Ram Navami at the birthplace of Lord Ram. The DM, however, claimed that in compliance with state government orders, only five devotees would be allowed at a time to enter the make-shift temple for offering prayers.

    ALSO READ | Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, his cabinet colleagues and SP chief Akhilesh test positive for COVID

    Similarly, the Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Deepak Agarwal has also appealed to devotees and foreigners to avoid visiting the holy city till the month end. He also hinted that RT PCR negative reports may be made mandatory to enter and stay in Varanasi.

    Varanasi is among the top five districts of the state reporting a rapid rise in positive cases. On Wednesday, 828 active cases were reported taking the total number of infected persons to 9607 with 405 deaths. The Commissioner said that Covid-19 negative report no older than three days has been made mandatory to offer prayers at Baba Kashi Vishwanath temple, Sankatmochan Temple and Annapurna temple.

  • Uttar Pradesh reports 13,685 new COVID-19 cases, 72 deaths; active tally at 81,576

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh on Monday reported 13,685 new COVID-19 cases while 72 fatalities took the death toll in the state to 9,224, a senior official said here.

    The total number of cases in the state stands at 7,05,619 and the active caseload is 81,576.

    “In the past 24 hours, 13,685 fresh cases were reported while 3,197 were discharged in this period.

    There are 81,576 active cases while 6,14,819 were treated and discharged.

    The state reported a total of 9,224 deaths till now since the start of the pandemic,” Additional Chief Secretary of Health Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters here.

    The state recorded 72 deaths, the highest single-day toll this month, according to official figures.

    Among the total active cases, 44,196 patients are in home isolation, he said, adding that on Sunday over 1.92 lakh samples were tested and the total samples tested rose to over 3.69 crores.

    In the state, over 75 lakh persons were administered COVID-19 vaccine, including over 12. 7 lakh who got the second dose as well, he said.

  • Allahabad HC takes notice of COVID-19 surge in UP, asks authorities to enforce protocol

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW:  In the wake of the surge in COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad High Court ave asked upon the state authorities on Tuesday to enforce rules to make masks 100 per cent mandatory across the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Moreover, the court also directed the Director-General of Police (DGP) to chalk out a programme to make people comply with the protocol to combat the ongoing surge in the cases of infection.

    In fact, the state breached the 5000-mark on Tuesday and recorded 5928 fresh cases during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, 30 persons lost the battle to the deadly virus.

    Hearing a PIL relating to Covid-19, a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Siddhartha Varma, directed the respective district administrations and police authorities to ensure that crowding does not happen at any place across the state.

    ALSO READ: COVID-19 spreading faster than last time in India, next four weeks critical, says Centre

    “If it finds that any particular place is likely to get crowded, then it should be cordoned off and see that people do not huddle”, said the bench. Referring to the upcoming Panchayat elections in the state, the court asked the authorities concerned to conduct the polls in such a manner so as to avoid crowding of people at booths.

    “Be it nomination, campaigning or voting, it should be seen that the COVID-19 protocols are followed,” said the court. Moreover, the court also asked the state government to explore the viability of vaccination for everyone irrespective of age groups. “Government should explore the viability of inoculating such students who have to appear in the Uttar Pradesh High School and Intermediate Board Examinations. In fact, a door-to-door vaccination programme should be chalked out”, the court added.

    Besides, the HC also directed the state government to see if night curfew could be clamped to avoid late evening social gatherings. “The state government may also examine viability to provide masks and sanitisers by utilising the amount recovered on account of violation of COVID-19 protocol”, the court directed.

    READ HERE: India records over 1.07 lakh new COVID-19 cases in single day for first time

    Elaborating the need for passing these directives, the court observed, “Though the state government has taken necessary steps to meet the challenge of the second wave of COVID-19, it is noticed that the directions given by the state have not been complied with by the public at large and that is an issue ofconcern. Having considered all the objective conditions, we deem it appropriate to direct the district magistrates of all the districts in the state of Uttar Pradesh to ensure strict and definite compliance of the directions issued by the government of Uttar Pradesh from time to time to meet with the threat of COVID-19.”