24 more succumb to COVID-19 in UP, toll rises to 345; tally 12,088

Lucknow, Jun 11 () The death toll due to coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday rose to 345 after it reported a record 24 fatalities, while 478 fresh cases pushed the tally in the state to 12,088, officials said here.

The state has 4,451 active COVID-19 cases and 7,292 patients have recovered, Principal Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters here.

He said 15,079 tests were conducted in UP on Wednesday, which is so far the highest in the state.

Prasad said accredited social health activists (ASHAs) were visiting villages to trace migrants who have returned from other parts of the country and till now over 15 lakh migrant workers have been tracked. Samples of those who had symptoms of the dreaded virus have been sent for testing, he said.

The state government's 1.15 lakh surveillance teams have surveyed 88 lakh homes, the principal secretary said, adding that Aarogya Setu mobile application is also being used to track suspected patients.

"Acting on alerts generated by the app, 71,736 people were called for testing, of them 155 were found positive for coronavirus and they are undergoing treatment, while 3,289 people are in quarantine," he said.

Friday onwards, the health department will start targeted sampling and take random samples from old age homes, juvenile homes, orphanage, hospitals, pharmacists, delivery boys, hospital staff and others "to find the ground reality", the principal secretary said. ABN DPB