Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Tuesday (7 April) that the number of Corona positive persons in the state was 308, which includes 168 Tablighi Jamaat returnees in the state.

The Chief Minister, who had chaired a meeting at his official residence earlier in the day to review measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the state, said: "We have decided that in every district hospital of divisional headquarters, we will establish corona testing labs and we have formed a committee to give this step a vital boost. We have 24 government medical colleges in the state, out of which 10 have testing labs and I have given orders to upgrade the rest of them so that testing can be done."

CM Adityanath, on Sunday (5 April), had sought the cooperation of various religious leaders in the battle against coronavirus, saying the deadly disease does not distinguish between religions and hence it is necessary that everyone fights against it together.

In the video conference with the leaders, he had mentioned the Tablighi Jamaat event, which has emerged as the biggest hotspot of the virus in the country. He urged the leaders to play an important role in spreading the correct information about Covid-19.

Adityanath said timely steps taken by the Central government had "stagnated" the spread of the virus in the second stage but "things suddenly changed" due to the Jamaat incident.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)