With 40 more COVID-19 fatalities, the death toll due to the viral disease in Uttar Pradesh rose to 22,443, while 173 new cases pushed the infection tally to 17,05,384, officials said on Saturday.
Eleven deaths were reported from Allahabad, 10 from Lucknow, and five from Shahjahanpur among other places, the state government said in a statement.
Of the new cases, 14 were reported from Gautam Buddh Nagar and 11 from Lucknow among others, the statement said.
In the last 24 hours, as many as 328 COVID-19 patients recovered from the disease, and were discharged, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 16,79,744.
The count of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 3,197, the statement said. More than 2.66 lakh samples were tested in the last 24 hours, while over 5.68 crore samples have been tested in the state so far, it said.
Meanwhile, genome sequencing of 100 samples has begun at the KGMU, Lucknow from Saturday for in-depth investigation of COVID-19 patients, an official release said.
The results of these samples will be helpful in making necessary efforts to check the threat of the Delta Plus variant, it added.
Addressing a high-level meeting, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath stressed on increasing the testing facility in the medical institutions of Varanasi and Noida on the lines of KGMC and RML, Lucknow and asked the officials to seek cooperation from the private sector, if required.
The government has also instructed the state health department to adopt a proactive and multifaceted approach to formulate a stringent action plan in all districts to tackle the Delta Plus variant that could lead to a possible third Covid wave, which is feared to affect the children, the release said.
