Ruling out community spread of coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh, the state government said that cases were now coming from hotspots or from people in quarantine and that Tablighi Jamaat links had been traced.

“All fresh positive cases across the state are coming from 398 hotspots in 234 police station areas covering 6.35 lakh houses and 35 lakh population, who are under quarantine. This is an indication that the disease has not spread across the community,” Additional Chief Secretary Awanish Awasthi told media persons in Lucknow on Saturday.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in hotspots is over 1,300 out of 1,548 cases reported so far.

Awasthi said that coronavirus positive cases in the state had been contained with all Tablighi Jamaat members and their contacts being traced and tested.

“The sudden spurt in the number of coronavirus positive cases was due to the testing of people in quarantine. Their samples are now being tested on a priority basis,” he said.

Among the total positive cases, 1,040 are from Tablighi Jamaat or their contacts.

The additional chief secretary said that the team of 54 officials, who were rushed to 19 districts to control coronavirus spread, had started working.

Earlier, there were 18 districts but now Sant Kabir Nagar district has also been added to it.

Meanwhile, Principle Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said that 10 districts had come out of the grip of COVID-19 virus.

“It is an achievement that the percentage of coronavirus positive cases in the age group of over 60 years has come down to 7.93 per cent from the previous 10 per cent, indicating that people are taking care of the elderly” he said.

Prasad also said that testing for COVID-19 had gone up and on Friday a record 4,115 tests were done across the state clearing a backlog.

In an important decision, the state government decided to set up infection prevention teams in all districts headed by an additional chief medical officers. It will check infection protocol of government and private hospitals .

Prasad said that after reports of infection in some hospitals, these teams comprising doctors, World Health Organisation representatives and Pollution Control Board officials would audit the prevention of infection in hospitals.

Besides, he said, every hospital, private and government, would have to set up an infection prevention committee.

“We will also impart training to private doctors for prevention of coronavirus infection in hospitals,” Prasad said.