17 more deaths, over 1,200 fresh COVID-19 cases in UP
So far, 862 deaths have been reported in the state, Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.
The number of active cases has gone up to 10,373, while 21,127 have been discharged from hospitals after recovery, he said.
A total of 1,206 fresh cases have been reported since Wednesday.
On Wednesday, 32,826 samples were tested in the state, he said, adding that over 10.36 lakh samples have been tested so far.
Prasad said testing capacity was constantly being increased and in a couple of days seven new labs of RT-PCR test will be added by the health department in Aligarh, Varanasi, Gonda, Moradabad, Bareilly, Mirzapur and Balrampur hospital in Lucknow.
Recently, a rise in the number of COVID-19 cases was seen in areas where people were either working or living very close to each other.
"Many cases have been reported from workplaces like call centres, media houses, police barracks and other such places where people work or live in close proximity. There is a need to strictly follow the norms of social distancing as well as use of face cover or masks," Prasad said.
Stressing that there were adequate arrangements for the treatment of COVID-19 patients with 1.50 lakh bed capacity being created, he made an appeal to seek timely medical attention in the form of testing and treatment of the infection, which is being provided by the state government free of cost.
Reiterating that the network of COVID-19 help desks set up in the state was proving to be useful in detection of cases, he said 35,809 help desks have so far identified 14,763 people with symptoms and the process of their sample testing was on. SAB KJ KJ KJ