Lucknow, Jun 4 () Uttar Pradesh witnessed the highest single-day spike in the number of COVID-19 fatalities with 15 deaths taking the toll to 245 even as the tally of cases crossed the 9,000-mark on Thursday.
A total of 15 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the state in the last 24 hours, a senior state health department official said, adding that this is the highest single-day spike in the number of casualties.
With 367 fresh cases in the last 24 hours, the number of COVID-19 patients went up to 9,237 in the state, Principal Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said.
The number of those recovered and discharged from hospitals stood at 5,439, while the number of active cases in the state was 3,553, he added.
According to a health department bulletin, three deaths each were reported from Meerut and Firozabad, two each from Agra, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr and one each from Azamgarh, Pratapgarh and Balrampur in the last 24 hours.
Of the 245 COVID-19 deaths reported so far in the state, Agra tops the chart with 47, followed by Meerut (32), Firozabad and Aligarh (16 each), Kanpur Nagar (13) and Moradabad (10), the bulletin said.
Of the fresh cases, Gautam Buddh Nagar accounted for 31, followed by Kanpur Nagar (29), Baghpat (18), Meerut (17), Ghaziabad (16), Lucknow and Jaunpur (14 each), Sant Kabirnagar and Varanasi (13 each), Chitrakoot (12), Basti, Ayodhya, Deoria and Hardoi (11 each) and Agra (10) among others, it added.
Prasad said the capacity for sampling and testing was being increased continuously.
On Wednesday, 10,563 samples were tested for coronavirus in various laboratories of the state, he said, adding, "It is our effort to further increase this number to 15,000 by June 15."
Six per cent of those infected with the deadly virus are above 60 years of age while 32.5 per cent in this age group have died, Prasad said.
He added that those in the 51-60 age group also need to be careful. This age group accounts for 8.8 per cent of the number of people infected with the virus in the state and 31.5 per cent of the deaths.
Prasad said 12,39,380 workers have been contacted by the ASHA workers so far by visiting their homes, the swab samples of 80,960 people have been tested, of which 2,583 have been found to be COVID-19 positive.
Migrant workers who returned to the state recently account for 28 per cent of the coronavirus cases, he said.
Prasad appealed to the aged people, pregnant women and those having co-morbidities to take utmost care and all necessary precautions to safeguard themselves from the infection. SAB RC