Elections Amid Corona: A Look At Covid-19 Tally In All 5 Poll-Bound States

Uttar Pradesh reported 6411 new Covid cases and 171 recoveries in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 16,88,395.

New Delhi: While the poll bugle was officially sounded in the five states with the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the election dates for Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, the Covid numbers continued to witness a relentless surge on Saturday.

Among the five poll-bound states, Uttar Pradesh topped the Covid chart with 6,411 cases.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh reported 6,411 new Covid cases and 171 recoveries in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of recoveries in the state to 16,88,395 and the active caseload to 18,551, out of which 18,184 patients are in home isolation.

Uttarakhand

The hill state on Saturday logged 1,560 fresh Covid infections and 270 recoveries, taking the daily positivity rate to 10.26%. The number of active cases in Uttarakhand reached 3,254. However, no Covid-related fatality was reported today.

Punjab

Punjab on Friday witnessed 2,901 fresh Covid cases and one death, taking the Covid count to 6,13,976, according to the daily health bulletin. The number of active cases in the state jumped to 9,425 from 6,687 on Thursday. With the fresh infections, the positivity rate on Friday climbed to 11.75% from 10.20% the day before.

Goa

Goa on Saturday logged 1,789 new Covid cases pushing the positivity rate to 23.25% from 21.72% on Friday. As many as 170 patients recovered from the infection taking the active caseload to 7,549. Goa also reported one death taking the Covid toll in the state to 3,531.

Manipur

The north-eastern state clocked 48 fresh infections on Friday, taking the Covid tally to 1,26,012. A total of 18 patients recovered while the active cases stood at 346.

Meanwhile, as mandated by the Election Commission of India, some of the Covid protocols that are to be followed at the polling booths include mandatory sanitization of the polling stations, thermal screening at entry points, pointers to mark social distancing at queue, face masks in reserves for those electors who do not carry a mask, hand gloves for the voters, sanitisers at the polling booths, among others.

Assembly polls in all the five states will be completed in total seven phases with Uttar Pradesh having seven-phase polling from February 10 till March 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.