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With three more districts being declared coronavirus infected, the Uttar Pradesh government claimed that around 75 per cent of positive cases were asymptomatic, indicating a tough fight to contain the infection that has been spreading steadily.
Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said that with coronavirus positive cases being reported from Mau, Etah and Sultanpur, these districts were declared coronavirus infected, taking the number of affected districts to 52.
The state has 75 districts and is inhabited by 23 crore people.
Prasad said that it was found in a study that around 75 per cent of coronavirus positive cases were asymptomatic, forcing the government to speed up testing and set up more hospitals for COVID-19 patients.
The principal secretary said that 3,268 samples were tested on Sunday while over 32,000 samples had been tested in the state till date.
Prasad said the government was attaching additional 10,000 beds with Level 1 hospitals at temporary buildings for suspected patients with no symptoms of the virus.
An asymptomatic patient does not show any symptom of the disease because of various factors, including a strong immune system, despite being a potent carrier of the virus, if unchecked.
Doctors give many reasons for patients being asymptomatic but testing positive. “It depends on a patient’s age and immunity. If the virus is not virulent and the load is not high, the afflicted person may not show any symptom. But if tested, he can be coronavirus positive,” said Dr SK Pandey from RML Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow.
Dr Pandey said that younger patients with good immunity may not show any signs of the disease. “Therefore, the need of the hour is to go for random testing, which the government is doing now,” he said.
Meanwhile on Monday, the Health department released the report of the survey of age group of infected people. As per the report, patients in the age group of 0-20 years accounted for 19.39 per cent while figure was the highest at 48.04 per cent for the 21-40 years age group.
Besides, 24.06 per cent of the infected persons are in the 41-60 years age group, and 8.5 per cent in people above 60 years of age. Last week, the incidence was 9.4 per cent in 60 years and above group.
“The decline in infection among elderly persons shows that people are taking good care of their parents, which is a very encouraging sign,” a Health department official said.