UP reports 20 COVID-19 deaths, over 500 fresh cases

Lucknow, Jun 13 () Uttar Pradesh on Saturday reported 20 deaths due to coronavirus and 502 fresh cases, pushing the state's tally to 13,118, an official said.

The total number of those who have died due to the deadly virus so far has now gone up to 385, Principal Secretary Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said.

There are 4,858 active cases in the state and 7,875 have been discharged from hospitals after being cured, Prasad said, adding that the recovery rate in the state continues to be over 60 per cent.

On Saturday, maximum of five deaths were reported from Meerut, followed by two each in Agra, Gautam Budhnagar, Lucknow, Siddhartnagar, one each in Ghaziabad, Moradabad, Jaunpur, Basti, Bulandshahr, Azmagarh and Mathura, a health department release said.

The maximum number of cases at 50 were from Kanpur Nagar, 49 Gautam Budhnagar, 44 from Lucknow, 23 from Meerut, 20 Ghaziabad among others, the release said.

Prasad said 14,236 samples were tested in the state and so far a total of 4,39,438 tests have been done.

Stating that the surveillance work was going on, he said ASHA workers have tracked over 15.91 lakh migrant workers till now, of which 1,413 were found having symptoms of COVID-19 and their samples were sent for testing.

Urging people to maintain social distancing, he advised elderly, children, pregnant women or those having comorbidities not to go out unless very important.

Prasad also stressed on seeking medical assistance in the early stages of the infection, saying delay can lead to complications.

It has been seen in the recent days that people who do not have any medical condition or are young have to face complications as they sought medical assistance very late and could not be saved, he said.

The government has made testing and treatment facilities free of cost and all those having any symptom need to use them, Prasad added. SAB KJ KJ