india

Updated: Apr 26, 2020 10:44 IST

Eight people, including seven policemen, tested positive for coronavirus disease Covid-19 on Saturday in Varanasi, taking the number of infected people in the district to 34. These policemen were posted in Sigra police station in the city.

District Magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma said that 95 reports were received from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Saturday in which seven police personnel tested positive for Covid-19. The police personnel include a sub-inspector, three head constables and three constables. The other 87 samples tested negative, said Sharma.

He further said that the sub-inspector first developed dry coughing and fever. Thereafter, some police personnel exhibited symptoms. They all lived in the same barrack at police outpost. Three days ago, they were quarantined in a guest house and their sampling was done. On Saturday, their report was received and seven policemen were tested. They have been shifted to isolation ward of BHU.

Another 39-year-old person has also been tested positive. He has also been shifted to DDU government hospital.

There are 25 active Covid-19 cases in the city and eight have been cured of the disease. One person has died.

The district administration is using specially designed drones to disinfect Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.

A statement by the principal scientific advisor’s office said it has collaborated with Invest India, the country’s National Investment Promotion Agency through the AGNIi Mission, and Invest India’s Business Immunity Platform (BIP) - to facilitate the use of specially designed drones to sanitise Varanasi, news agency PTI reported.

The statement said using drones, authorities can spray disinfectant over large, crowded, vulnerable urban areas by protecting city-dwellers from Covid-19, while reducing human contact to keep frontline workers safe.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh reached 1,793 on Sunday with 177 new patients reported in the last 24 hours.

“The total number of samples found negative is 54,216. The total number of samples result awaited is 842,” Uttar Pradesh’s Directorate of Health Services said in a bulletin on Saturday.

The media bulletin further said, “The total travellers screened at the border check posts is 15,59,010. These are all travellers and not suspects. 35 patients have been declared recovered and discharged today, taking the total number to 261.”

Total number deaths due to Covid-19 in Uttar Pradesh is 27 - one each at Basti, Varanasi, Bulandshahar, Lucknow, four at Meerut, six at Moradabad, one at Firozabad, eight at Agra, three at Kanpur, and one at Aligarh, according to state health officials.