Uttar Pradesh records 48 more COVID-19 deaths, 12,787 fresh cases

The chief minister has directed the district administration to put more ambulances in the duty, a senior UP government official said.Directions were also issued to increase testing, and the ambit of contact tracing per patient should be increased from existing 15 to 30.Adityanath also inspected the integrated control and command centre in the state capital.

With 48 more deaths, the coronavirus fatality count in Uttar Pradesh climbed to 9,085 as 12,787 new cases took the state's infection count to 6,76,739, according to a government statement.

Twenty-three deaths were reported from state capital Lucknow, followed by six in Kanpur, two each in Varanasi, Allahabad, Muzaffarnagarar and Kushinagar and one each in Moradabad, Ballia, Ayodhya, Mathura, Rae Bareli, Rampur, Gonda, Sonbhadra, Farrukhabad, Banda and Pilibhit, the statement said.

Of the 12,787 fresh COVID-19 cases, 4,059 were reported from Lucknow, followed by 1,460 from Allahabad, 983 from Varanasi, 706 from Kanpur, it said.

So far, 6,08,853 patients have recovered from the disease. The count of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 58,801.

Chairing a review meeting at the Lok Bhavan here, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials that in the next 24 hours, 2,000 ICU beds should be arranged in Lucknow and another 2,000 beds should be created in another week's time.

''This means that additional 4,000 ICU beds will be created in Lucknow to tackle the COVID-19 menace. The chief minister has directed the district administration to put more ambulances in the duty,'' a senior UP government official said.

Directions were also issued to increase testing, and the ambit of contact tracing (per patient) should be increased from existing 15 to 30.

Adityanath also inspected the integrated control and command centre in the state capital.