News Analysis India

Tag: UP Covid cases

  • Uttar Pradesh now administering more daily Covid vaccine jabs than the US

    By Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: UP has good news to share on the coronavirus front after recording just 14 cases despite 2.17 lakh samples being tested during the last 24 hours. 

    The state tops the chart when it comes to carrying out a robust vaccination drive too and has left many countries like the United States behind when it comes to the average daily doses being administered.

    “To vaccinate the maximum population (possible) as it remains the best line of defence against Covid-19 is our aim,” said a senior health official.

    The Union Health Ministry, on Friday, tweeted an infographic showing how Indian states are now administering more daily jabs than even many developed countries in the west. 

    In the chart, Uttar Pradesh stands at the top having administered an average of over 11.73 lakh Covid-19 vaccine jabs daily which put it even ahead of the United States that has only administered around 8.07 lakh average doses daily in recent days.

    ALSO READ | Shot in the arm for vaccine drive as more rural areas come under inoculation coverage

    The other four states that have had an impressive record when it comes to daily vaccination numbers recently are Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

    “Uttar Pradesh is setting new records in vaccination daily. Strengthening its fight against the deadly coronavirus, 33.42 lakh doses of anti-Covid vaccine were administered on September 6, the highest-ever vaccination doses given on a single day by any state since the start of the Covid-19 drive on January 16, 2021,” said a health official.

    The state has administered over 14.88 lakh vaccine doses in the last 24 hours. So far, Uttar Pradesh has administered a total number of 8,62,37,882 cumulative doses of the Covid vaccine.  More than 48 per cent of the total eligible population has received the first dose in UP.

    As per the state government spokesman, with greater awareness, now Covid vaccination numbers in rural areas are also witnessing a big jump. Villages are contributing over 80% of the daily vaccination numbers. 

  • UP’s Amethi now self-reliant in medical oxygen production with seven plants: MP Smriti Irani

    By PTI

    AMETHI: Amethi was neglected for 70 years and there was not even one oxygen generation unit, but it has become self-reliant in medical oxygen now with seven plants, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Saturday, in an apparent swipe at the Congress whose leaders represented the constituency for decades.

    Irani, on a two-day visit to her parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, inspected a trauma centre in Jagdishpur.

    “Amethi was deprived of various facilities for 70 years. There was not a single oxygen plant in Amethi, but today there are seven oxygen plants. In the area of medical oxygen, Amethi has become self-reliant,” she said.

    ALSO READ | India sends 150 tonnes of oxygen to Sri Lanka to help it tackle coronavirus surge

    “Amethi is my home, my family. I know how to look after the family. I do what I say. You have seen that during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Initially samples had to be sent to Lucknow for testing, but the Yogi Adityanath government in UP made such a provision that COVID-19 tests are now being conducted in Amethi,” said Irani, who defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the constituency in 2019.

    “Whether I am in Amethi or outside, I keep a tab of Amethi and am in touch with the administration,” the Union Women and Child Development Minister said.

  • Uttar Pradesh reopens schools for primary students

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: All the primary schools (class I to V) in Uttar Pradesh reopened on Wednesday for regular physical classes with Covid appropriate measures.

    Normalcy returned on Wednesday morning when the tiny tots were seen going to schools with bags on their back and mask on the face.

    As per the guidelines issued by the state government, the classes will be held in two shifts — morning and evening– and only 50% of children would attend one shift.

    At the same time, the private school administrations have sought permission from the parents to send their children to schools. The private schools have been holding both the online and offline classes simultaneously for the students as many parents have not given their consent to send the children to school for physical classes.

    ALSO READ | CM Yogi supports demand to ban liquor, meat in Braj region of UP

    The primary schools have reopened after 17 months. They were closed during the first Covid wave. However, online classes continued during this entire period.

    As per basic education officer Vijay Pratap Singh, students were called in clean uniforms with two sets of masks and a dish of their own for mid-day meals in government schools.

    The parents were duly informed about all the precautions to be taken by them while sending the children at the parents-teachers meetings held prior to the reopening of the schools.

    In all the schools, both private and government, the management was seen adhering to the Covid protocol in the morning shift. All arrangements including thermal scanning, pulse oxymetre, and social distancing were in place.

    Many schools had made the seating arrangement for only 20 students in a classroom. However, many prominent private schools continued with the online classes only and had postponed the re-opening.

  • UP reports just 8 Covid cases in 24 hours as downward trend continues

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: UP has reported just 28 cases during the last 24 hours with 14 districts having zero active cases. There has been no death due to Covid in the state for the last three days. Now the tally of total active cases stands at 352.

    However, Tuesday’s number is four times more than that of Monday when the state had reported just seven cases, the lowest since the onset of the pandemic in the country in March 2020. The state capital Lucknow reported the first positive Covid case on March 11, 2020, while the maximum cases in the city were witnessed on April 16, 2021, when the city had reported 6,598 fresh cases during the second wave.

    The average number of samples tested in the state capital remains at 14,000 samples per day while to date more than 49 lakh samples have been tested in Lucknow. The state capital has 26 active covid19 cases at the moment.

    ALSO READ | Ayodhya will soon be a solar city, future needs to be met through green power

    UP’s 14 districts, which have zero cases, include Aligarh, Auraiyya, Badaun, Deoria, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur, Gonda, Hamirpur, Hardoi, Kanpur Dehat, Mahoba, Mirzapur, Sant Kabir Nagar, and Unnao.

    In Uttar Pradesh, an average of 2.5 lakh tests are being conducted on daily basis. The positivity rate is around 0.01% and the rate of recovery is 98.6%, the highest in the country. During the last 24 hours, 1,56,524 samples were tested in the state. In all 58 districts, there was no fresh case of Covid whereas in 17 districts, the cases were in single-digit during the last 24 hours.

    High recoveries and a low number of new cases have subsided the Active Caseload in the most populous state to 352, while the percentage of active cases as against the total confirmed cases is just zero.

    CM Yogi Adityanath cautioned the people of the state amid the studies suggesting the threat of the third wave in and around October. The CM called upon the people of the state to be more careful and cautious and follow the COVID protocol as the lockdown was totally lifted in the state.

    Despite registering a steady decline in the number of fresh cases, Uttar Pradesh has been pushing for more testing, tracing, and treatment. Under the state’s ‘Covid Control Model’, Covid-19 testing has been one of the most effective weapons against the pandemic. Uttar Pradesh has conducted over 7.07 crore samples so far followed by Maharashtra’s 5.22 crore.

  • UP reports just 28 Covid cases in 24 hours as downward trend continues

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: UP has reported just 28 cases during the last 24 hours with 14 districts having zero active cases. There has been no death due to Covid in the state for the last three days. Now the tally of total active cases stands at 352.

    However, Tuesday’s number is four times more than that of Monday when the state had reported just seven cases, the lowest since the onset of the pandemic in the country in March 2020. The state capital Lucknow reported the first positive Covid case on March 11, 2020, while the maximum cases in the city were witnessed on April 16, 2021, when the city had reported 6,598 fresh cases during the second wave.

    The average number of samples tested in the state capital remains at 14,000 samples per day while to date more than 49 lakh samples have been tested in Lucknow. The state capital has 26 active covid19 cases at the moment.

    ALSO READ | Ayodhya will soon be a solar city, future needs to be met through green power

    UP’s 14 districts, which have zero cases, include Aligarh, Auraiyya, Badaun, Deoria, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur, Gonda, Hamirpur, Hardoi, Kanpur Dehat, Mahoba, Mirzapur, Sant Kabir Nagar, and Unnao.

    In Uttar Pradesh, an average of 2.5 lakh tests are being conducted on daily basis. The positivity rate is around 0.01% and the rate of recovery is 98.6%, the highest in the country. During the last 24 hours, 1,56,524 samples were tested in the state. In all 58 districts, there was no fresh case of Covid whereas in 17 districts, the cases were in single-digit during the last 24 hours.

    High recoveries and a low number of new cases have subsided the Active Caseload in the most populous state to 352, while the percentage of active cases as against the total confirmed cases is just zero.

    CM Yogi Adityanath cautioned the people of the state amid the studies suggesting the threat of the third wave in and around October. The CM called upon the people of the state to be more careful and cautious and follow the COVID protocol as the lockdown was totally lifted in the state.

    Despite registering a steady decline in the number of fresh cases, Uttar Pradesh has been pushing for more testing, tracing, and treatment. Under the state’s ‘Covid Control Model’, Covid-19 testing has been one of the most effective weapons against the pandemic. Uttar Pradesh has conducted over 7.07 crore samples so far followed by Maharashtra’s 5.22 crore.

  • UP lifts Sunday lockdown as state sees sharap decline in Covid cases

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: With active Covid cases on a decline across the state, the Yogi Adityanath government on Friday lifted the Sunday lockdown, thus reverting to the pre-Covid arrangement. 

    The decision was taken during a meeting of CM’s ‘Team-9’ on Friday. Now, the markets will follow their respective weekdays for closure. In a statement, the government said all markets could reopen normally across the state but would need to follow appropriate Covid norms and guidelines.

    At present, shops and commercial establishments are allowed to function between 6 am and 10 pm from Monday to Saturday, while the lockdown used to be in place on Sundays.

    Notably, a number of women organisations had been urging the state government to lift the Sunday curfew in view of the festival of Raksha Bandhan on August 22. Even cinema hall owners were also asking the state government to end the weekly closure since it was affecting their business. The government spokesman said that markets would now observe their earlier weekly closure on designated days.

    ALSO READ | India achieves highest ever COVID-19 vaccination in single day

    Earlier this month, Yogi govt had ended Saturday curfew under weekend lockdown after Covid cases in the state started coming down.

    As per the order issued by the government, the general public can now stay normal from 6 am to 10 pm on all weekdays. However, the order clearly states that people must use masks, sanitizer and follow social distancing.

    The Uttar Pradesh government had imposed a corona curfew across the state during the second wave of deadly Covid in April and May this year. With time, the state govt relaxed lockdown rules in s phased manner after the state started to report s decline in coronavirus cases.

    There has been a marked improvement in the pandemic situation as 12 districts — Aligarh, Amethi, Chitrakoot, Etah, Firozabad, Gonda, Hathras, Kasganj, Pilibhit, Pratapgarh, Shamli, and Sonbhadra. These districts have no active Covid cases while the recovery rate of the state stands at 98.6%.

    The government had also allowed secondary, higher, technical, and vocational educational institutions to resume normal classes with 50% attendance. The CM had asked the officials to organise vaccination camps on the premises of universities and colleges for students above 18 years.

  • UP becomes first state to cross milestone of 6 crore Covid vaccine doses

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Achieving a feat, Uttar Pradesh crossed another milestone by administering over 6 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday. This is the highest figure of vaccination done by any state so far.

    The landmark came through on Tuesday afternoon. So far, over 5,07,22,629 have received their first doses while over 94,27,421 are fully vaccinated in UP.

    While the state administering over 23.67 lakh doses of Covid-19 vaccine to people in a single day, the second-highest so far, on August 3, around 29.52 lakh doses were given in UP which is a record in itself.

    On the contrary, other states like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh have so far administered 5.01 crore doses. The vaccination numbers in Rajasthan stand at 3.82 crore, West Bengal has vaccinated around 3.46 crore people, in Tamil Nadu only 2.71 crore vaccine doses have been given and Kerala has vaccinated only 2.46 crore of its population.

    Ensuring that no section is left under this massive vaccination campaign, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed the officials to cover each and everyone in getting their doses in a hassle-free manner.

  • No Covid case in 49 UP dists, 15 other now pandemic-free

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Just 42 cases of Covid-19 infection have been reported in the past 24 hours according to the officials on coronavirus status here on Saturday.

    Officials pointed out that as many as 49 districts recorded zero cases, while 15 districts including Aligarh, Amethi, Ballia, Bahraich, Chitrakoot, Farrukhabad, Firozabad, Hardoi, Hathras, Kasgnaj, Kaushambi, Mahoba, Saharanpur,  Shamli, and Sonbhadra of the state, have become pandemic-free with the active case tally touching a zero. They, however, stressed the importance of prevention saying that the risk of complications caused by the virus was still lurking.

    Similarly, 26 districts of the state have reported fresh active cases only in single-digit during the last 24 hours. A total of 64 patients were discharged after recovery. So far, 16.86 lakh patients in the state had recovered from the virus attack fully and were discharged.

    ALSO READ | No new COVID-19 case in Mumbai’s Dharavi; active infections at 11

    According to the Additional chief secretary, Information, Navneet  Sehgal, the state is now left with 446 active cases which are over 99% lesser than the peak of 3.10 lakh cases reported on April 30.

    ACS, information, Navneet Sehgal added that on average, 2.38 lakh Covid-19 tests were being done in the state during the last 24 hours. Numbers show that the test positivity rate for the past 24 hours was 0.01% and the recovery rate was 98.6%.

    The officials advocated the need for prevention despite the decline in cases as the risk of pandemic infection and its complications were still prevalent. In terms of vaccination, UP has vaccinated 5,70,85000 people across the state.

  • Corona curfew extended in Uttar Pradesh till May 24

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government decided on Saturday to extend the partial coronavirus curfew till 7 am on May 24.

    A decision was taken at a virtual meeting of the cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

    Earlier, the government had decided to increase the duration of the curfew till 7 am on May 17.

    “The partial corona curfew has helped in controlling the COVID-19 spread in the state,” Adityanath said in a statement.

    “Keeping this in mind, the duration is being increased.”

    Adityanath said the state government was already providing free testing and treatment of COVID-19, as well as vaccination.

    The chief minister said the state government would provide 3-kg wheat and 2-kg rice free of cost to the holders of ‘antyodaya’ and ration card for three months.

    This will benefit almost 15 crore people of the state.

    He said daily-wage earners in urban areas would be given Rs 1,000 for one month.

    This will benefit around one crore people.

    The provision to arrange food for the needy should be done using community kitchens.

    Essential services will continue.

    Barring the basic education, online classes can resume, directions have been issued in this regard, the statement said.

    He said the state government was running two insurance schemes to give social security to all the labourers.

    This includes Rs 2 lakh insurance in case of death or disability to any labourer and a health cover up to Rs 5 lakh.

  • Maharashtra, UP, Delhi among 18 states showing decrease in daily new Covid cases: Centre

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Covid situation, at least in some states, maybe showing some signs of improvement despite 42% of the total districts in India — 310 out of 734 — still showing runaway infections, the data presented by the Centre on Tuesday showed.

    Eighteen states in India, which includes Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana among others, are showing a decline or plateauing of Covid cases, the Union ministry of health and family welfare said in a press briefing.

    The glimmer of hope for the country dealing with the Covid catastrophe came on a day, the active coronavirus cases plunged by over 30,000 for the first time in over two months.  

    The major concern, however, persists as 16 states continue to show the surge in cases, pointed out Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry.

    It was also shared that while the country’s test positivity rate remains a staggering 21 %, 310 districts have positivity rates above the national average.

    ALSO READ | Karnataka, Kerala, TN among 16 states showing continued increasing trend in daily Covid cases: Centre

    Underscoring the need to enhance the testing in order to curb the pandemic in rural areas, the government announced that rapid antigen tests will now be allowed at all government and private health facilities and said that RATs approved by renowned global agencies will not need separate validation in India.

    As of now, said ICMR director general Balram Bhargava, RT-PCR testing capacity in the country is 16 lakh per day while 17 lakh RATs can be conducted every day.

    Bhargava also said that home-based testing solutions are being explored and plans are afoot to set up RAT booths to be set up with the community in schools, colleges, community centers, RWA offices among others.

    The Centre meanwhile also applauded the Covid19 containment models adopted by Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra saying that such models need to be replicated at the national level to control the outbreak.

    “The decentralized approach Mumbai has adopted in Covid-19 containment needs to be adopted at the national level,” said Agarwal at the press briefing.

    “We have observed that strict measures like restrictions on mass gatherings and on the intermingling of people along with the closing of non-essential activities for a period of 15 days reduce the rate of growth of cases and cases start plateauing,” he said while showing Pune’s Covid graph.