New Delhi: Signalling control over a deadly second wave of coronavirus infection, Uttar Pradesh on Saturday recorded less than 5,000 fresh Covid-19 cases for the first time since the middle of last month.

A total of 4,800 new cases were recorded in the most populous state in the last 24 hours, making it the lowest daily infection count for Uttar Pradesh. The Fresh cases have declined by 34,000 from its peak which was 38,055 on April 24

The lesser number of fresh cases on Saturday, however, is not because Uttar Pradesh, like other states including Delhi, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, has decreased COVID testing. The Yogi-led state under its stringent T3 testing mechanism-’Test, Trace and Treat’ conducted more than 3 Lakh Covid tests in the last 24 hours.

The state has emerged as a leader in terms of conducting maximum covid tests. A total of 4,67,37,022 covid tests have been done so far and as many as 3,17,620 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, thereby making a national record.

Out of the total tests conducted on Saturday, around 1,32,768 were RT PCR examinations. Earlier on Friday, Uttar Pradesh had tested 3,06,548 samples for Covid.

Consequently, the daily Covid Test Positivity Rate (TPR) too has dipped to 1.51 percent from a high of over 16.84 percent in April, which shows that the disease spread has been arrested to an extent. Case positivity rate is the percentage of samples that test positive out of the total numbers of samples evaluated.

Uttar Pradesh’s positivity rate – which shows the level of infections among people – has been registering a steady decline for several days indicating signs that the dangerous Covid wave is receding from the state.

Keeping up with its positive recovery trend, Uttar Pradesh on Saturday also saw a recovery of as many as 14,086 people.

Uttar Pradesh also witnessed massive reduction in the number of active covid cases since its peak on April 30, as the active cases have dropped from 3,10,783 to 84,800.

With the Covid condition in the state improving day by day, the recovery rate has surpassed 93 percent.

UP conducts record 3.17 Lakh tests in the last 24 hours

Scaling up the stringent testing mechanism as per CM Yogi’s target of ‘test, trace and treat’, the state is managing to break the covid chain with effective protocols in place, and by sticking to the time-tested strategy of case isolation and contact-tracing, combined with an alert community surveillance system.

The state has managed to test more than 3 lakh samples for COVID for two days in a row.

The key elements of the ‘Yogi Model’ such as alertness, preparedness, contact tracing, early detection, isolation and free and timely provision of medicine kits and treatment to the Covid patients and particularly to the rural populace has also won laurels from several expert bodies such as World Health Organization (WHO) and NITI Aayog, asking other states to replicate the mechanism.

The government’s think tank NITI Aayog that had earlier made grim predictions about the state’s covid condition by the end of April widely appreciated the efforts of the Yogi-led government as the condition in the state is showing massive improvement day by day, it also lauded the Uttar Pradesh Government’s model of oxygen transport and tracking.