Lucknow, Dec 27 Uttar Pradesh has seen another spurt in Covid cases in the past 24 hours with 59 new cases being reported.
The total number of active cases under treatment in the state has crossed the 300-mark.
In all, 59 new Covid-19 cases were reported till Sunday while in the past 48-hours 96 new cases have been detected.
"In the past 24 hours, 18,587 Covid samples were tested and 59 new cases were reported," said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary (medical health), in a press statement.
At present, the state has 323 Covid active cases.
"Lucknow reported 17 Covid cases in the past 48-hours, of which five cases were reported on Saturday and 12 on Sunday. The rising trend has to be checked with compliance of Covid protocol by one and all," said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
Among the new cases in Lucknow, two had returned from Dubai on December 19 and 24. One passenger who returned from Jharkhand and another from Mumbai tested positive for Covid.
A patient, who came from Jaunpur for treatment at KGMU, also tested positive while four tested positive during the contact tracing of a positive case. Another person tested positive at Lohia institute.
Dr Manoj Agrawal, chief medical officer of Lucknow, said that people should avoid journeys and travel only when it is necessary. He said that the use of masks was essential for the safety of self and others.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh reported on Sunday its third Omicron case after a 29-year-old woman, who returned from the US to Rae Bareli, tested positive for Covid-19 and later her sample taken for Omicron also came positive.
"The woman reached New Delhi from Florida (US) and then came to Rae Bareli. We took her sample on December 16 and it tested positive for Covid-19 in the RT-PCR test. The genome sequencing was done thereafter and it came out to be Omicron," said Dr Virendra Singh, chief medical officer (CMO), Rae Bareli. The woman is a photographer.
"The condition of the woman is fine and all her 12 contacts have tested negative for Covid," said Dr Singh.
Earlier, two omicron cases were reported in Ghaziabad.
Meanwhile, the third phase of sero-surveillance is starting in UP on Monday.
Under the fresh round, random sampling will be done among adult men, women and children in five districts while in 20 other districts sampling will be done in timeline.
Six hundred and forty samples each will be collected from Ballia, Shahjahanpur, Kushinagar, Ghaziabad and Sambhal, totalling to 3,200 samples. In these districts, samples will be taken in the ratio of 3 adult men to 3 adult women and 3 children. Sampling will be done at random.
All samples have to be collected in December. "We will begin sampling from Monday. A list of people from whom samples have to be taken is ready," said a senior health official in Lucknow.
In 20 other districts, 100 samples will be taken in different categories. The first category is of health workers who had tested positive for Covid between May 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.
Another category will be of 264 samples from among health workers who did not test positive till vaccination started on January 16, 2021. The next category is of people above 60-years of age who tested positive in the RT-PCR report between July 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. A total of 332 samples will be taken collectively from all districts.
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