Uttar Pradesh on Monday witnessed the steepest decline in the number of fresh coronavirus positive cases and just seven new cases were reported during the last 24 hours, making it the lowest daily case count for the state so far.
Continuing its downward spiral, Uttar Pradesh has been maintaining the daily Covid test positivity rate (TPR) -- the number of positive cases against the total tests done -- at 0.01 per cent, the lowest in the country. This rate was at its highest at 16.84 per cent on April 24 and now remains even lower than the lowest post-first wave of COVID-19.
High recoveries and a low number of new cases have subsided the active caseload in the most populous state to 362, while the percentage of active cases as against the total confirmed cases is just 0.001 points.
“Uttar Pradesh has outperformed other major states with lesser populations and this reinforces the perception of how the state has managed to do better in containment of the virus as well as in mitigating the adverse economic effects with partial Covid curfews aimed at saving both lives and livelihood,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal.
The additional chief secretary said that despite registering a steady decline in the number of fresh coronavirus cases, Uttar Pradesh has been pushing for more tests. He said under the state’s ‘Covid Control Model’, testing for COVID-19 had been one of the most stressed weapons against the pandemic.
Uttar Pradesh has tested the maximum number of samples so far -- over 7.07 crore -- followed by Maharashtra’s 5.22 crore.
“True to the spirit of 'Trace, Test, and Treat' policy, as many as 1.53 lakh samples were tested in the last 24 hours, of which over 1.10 lakh were RT-PCR examinations,” Sehgal said.
In what comes as a major relief, none of the 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh have reported fresh cases of coronavirus infection in double digit lately, indicating that the dangerous virus is receding from the state. As many as 69 districts reported no fresh cases of novel coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, whereas six districts reported new cases in single digit.