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Claiming that coronavirus infection in Uttar Pradesh has not reached the level of community transmission, the Yogi Adityanath government claimed that random tests carried out across major slums of the state showed less than 10 per cent of them had coronavirus positive.
The government spokesman said in a written statement here on Saturday that 311 slums were randomly tested across the state out of which 30 slums spread over 20 districts had reported positive cases.
UP, home to 23 crore population, has 75 districts.
“Urban slums were sampled randomly across the state. In the bigger districts, 10 slums were sampled. In the middle size districts, five slums per districts and in smaller districts two slums per district were sampled. A total of 311 slums were randomly tested across the state. Out of them, 30 slums spread over 20 districts, showed positive results in pool tests,” the spokesman said.
He said out of 4,160 samples tested, 75 samples tested positive and the rest 4,085 were negative. “This comes out to less than 2 per cent of the total tests carried in the slums,” he said
The 20 districts where positive results came include Ambedkar Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Sultanpur, Varanasi, Moradabad, Mathura, Shrawasti, Aligarh, Auraiya, Budaun, Ballia, Etah, Firozabad, Ghazipur, Jalaun, Kanpur Nagar, Meerut and Gautam Buddha Nagar.
Incidentally, districts like Ghaziabad and Lucknow, where the number of positive cases in the slums is negligible, have seen a spike in coronavirus cases.
“Such random sampling is being carried out to map the vulnerability of high-risk groups. This will generate awareness among them and help in taking  corrective measures in time to contain the spread of infection,” the spokesman said.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed all district magistrates to take precautionary measures. He has also asked the district magistrates for active contact tracing and sampling wherever positive cases have been found in slums, the spokesman added.