Eight NCR districts in Uttar Pradesh account for over 25% of state's active COVID-19 cases

Noida: Uttar Pradesh’s eight districts that lie in the National Capital Region (NCR) account for over 25 percent or one-fourth of the state’s active COVID-19 cases and nearly 11 percent of the deaths linked to the disease, according to official data. Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Shamli districts are a part of the NCR, a wider region that also comprises districts from Haryana, Rajasthan and entire Delhi. According to official data updated till Friday, there were a total of 5,21,988 COVID-19 cases in the state, while the number of active cases stood at 23,357, of which 5,863 (25.10 percent) were in its NCR districts. Meerut has the highest number of 2,102 active cases among these eight districts, followed by Gautam Buddh Nagar (1,401), Ghaziabad (1,195), Muzaffarnagar (431), Bulandshahr (304), Shamli (168) Hapur (167) and Baghpat (149), according to the data. The state has so far recorded 7,500 deaths linked to COVID-19, with 819 (10.92 percent) of them being recorded in the NCR districts, it showed. The highest number of such deaths was recorded in Meerut (375), which is followed by Ghaziabad (89), Muzaffarnagar (85), Bulandshahr (80), Gautam Buddh Nagar (74), Hapur (62), Shamli (28) and Baghpat (26), the data showed. Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country, has 75 districts, including major ones like Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Agra, Gorakhpur and Bareilly in terms of population and area. The NCR altogether comprises 23 districts from the three states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and the entire National Capital territory of Delhi spanning across 55,083 square kilometres, according to the NCR Planning Board. The data, which is updated every 24 hours, also showed that so far, 4,91,131 COVID-19 patients have recovered from the disease across the state, with 73,046 (14.87 percent) such patients being in the eight NCR districts. Till Friday, the highest number of such recoveries was recorded in Ghaziabad (20,026), which is followed by Gautam Buddh Nagar (19,691), Meerut (14,408), Muzaffarnagar (6,140), Bulandshahr (4,786), Hapur (3,445), Shamli (2,898) and Baghpat (1,652), it stated. The official statewide data does not share any number on testing of samples nor does it show the total positive COVID-19 cases at the district level. There were 4,39,747 active cases of COVID-19 in the country, while 84,78,124 patients have been discharged and overall 1,32,726 deaths recorded so far, according to a central government data updated till Saturday. The total number of coronavirus cases in the country stands at 90,50,597, the data updated till 8 am on Saturday showed.