Keep a watch on kids’ health, speed up vaccination: CM Yogi

This comes a day after Union Health Ministry directed four states, including Uttar Pradesh, and the Union Territory of Delhi to take pre-emptive measures amid a spurt in Covid-19 cases.

On Monday, two weeks after lifting the mandatory provision of wearing masks in public places, the Uttar Pradesh government issued fresh guidelines making masks compulsory in six districts of the National Capital Region (NCR) and in the state Capital Lucknow.

On Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh reported 170 fresh Covid cases with the highest infection being reported from NCR districts of Gautam Budh Nagar (103) and Ghaziabad (33). Lucknow reported five fresh cases. No casualties were reported in the last 24 hours in the state.

As per the government data, the total number of active cases in the state stood at 856 with Gautam Budh Nagar having the most (467), followed by Ghaziabad (139) and Lucknow (50). The state government said that in the last 24 hours, 1.13 lakh samples were tested across the state with a positivity rate was 0.149 per cent.

On Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had specifically highlighted Uttar Pradesh, saying the state has seen an increase in positivity from 0.03% to 0.09% in the last week.”

Meanwhile, officials said that 100 per cent of the adult population in the state has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 86 per cent adult population have received both doses. A total of 30.86 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. “Between ages 15 and 17 years, 94.26 per cent teenagers have received at least one dose,” said a government spokesperson.

The chief minister also instructed officials to ensure that maximum booster doses are given to the eligible population.