Uttar Pradesh Covid-19 surge continues with highest daily tally of over 38,000 cases, record toll of 222 deaths

Uttar Pradesh reported 38,055 cases of Covid-19 in the past 24-hours, the highest one-day spike, amid a continuous shortage of oxygen and beds in hospitals across the state.

The state reported 222 deaths in the same period, which was also the highest one-day increase, according to official sources.

Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said here that the total number of active cases in the state stood at a little over 2.88 lakh while 10,959 people had so far died from the infection.

The state capital of Lucknow continued to be the worst affected in the state with 5,461 new cases of Covid-19 and 42 deaths in the past 24-hours.

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According to sources, the special 'oxygen express' train arrived at Lucknow railway station on Saturday from Bokaro. The district administration was making arrangements to distribute it among the hospitals.

The state government has set up a control room to monitor the availability of oxygen at the hospitals, officials here said. They also claimed that there was no shortage of Remdesivir injections in the state.

They said that so far over 96 lakh people had been given the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Over 19 lakh people had been given the second dose of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, hospitals continued to report a shortage of oxygen and the serious patients had a hard time getting admitted there. The attendants of the patients were seen running from one hospital to another in search of beds.