Uttar Pradesh reported its first two coronavirus deaths on Wednesday as the tally of COVID-19 patients jumped to 113 with four more persons testing positive for the virus in Noida.
Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad told media persons in Lucknow on Wednesday that the first coronavirus death in the state was reported from BRD Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur where a 25-year-old youth from Basti died on Monday last. He said the second death was reported from Meerut, where a 72-year-old man died on Wednesday afternoon.
The youth who died in Gorakhpur came in contact with one of his close kin who had come from Maharashtra.
Prasad said that the Basti youth had no travel history and was suffering from kidney ailment for the last two years. He said while the youth died on Monday, the report of his coronavirus test showing him to be a positive COVID-19 case was released by King George’s Medical University, Lucknow on Wednesday.
“It is not clear how this man contacted the virus. Efforts are on to establish whether the young victim came in contact with anyone. But as of now no such information has been received,” the principal secretary said.
Prasad further said that three coronavirus clusters had been detected in the state.
One is at Noida where 47 people were infected and this extends to Bareilly where six of a family got infected. The other two clusters are at Meerut where 19 people were affected and at Ghaziabad, where nine persons tested positive of coronavirus infection, he added.
“But the good news is that 17 patients have been cured and has returned home while there is a steady decline in the number of patients,” the official said.
On March 28, there were 48 COVID-19 cases in the state and the number leapt to 67 on March 29. The figure went up with 19 new cases to 87 on March 30. But thereafter, the number of cases started dropping and on March 31 just 14 new cases were detected and on April 1 this figure dropped further  to 12 new cases.