Despite the spike in coronavirus cases, over one-third of active cases in Uttar Pradesh are either in home isolation or in hotels as they have mild symptoms, thereby easing the immense pressure from Covid hospitals.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said on Friday that there were 44,563  active cases across the state while the number of recovered patients stood at 66,834 and 3,432 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals today.

“Of the active cases, one-third are recuperating either in their homes or in hotels. There are 15,035 asymptomatic patients in home isolation and 170 in semi-paid hotels and the rest are in government-run or private Covid hospitals,” Awasthi said.

With the increase in coronavirus positive cases, the state government has allowed home isolation of patients with mild symptoms. The guidelines say that only those with mild symptoms – low grade fever, sore throat, headache — and no comorbid conditions like diabetes, hypertension, heart and kidney disease will be allowed to remain in home isolation.

Awasthi said the number of coronavirus positive cases witnessed a spike in recent weeks as more tests were being done but the encouraging part was that these patients either had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.

“With their isolation at home, the pressure on Covid hospitals is now less and therefore they can now concentrate on non-Covid patients,” he said.

The additional chief secretary said that 95,737 tests were done on Thursday and the total Covid tests in the state had reached 28 lakh so far. Of these tests 34,188 were rapid antigen tests.

He said 2.24 lakh surveillance teams visited 47,724 areas in the state and visited 1.59 crore houses to medically screen over 8.05 crore people.