Lucknow, May 15 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh on Saturday registered 281 fresh COVID-19 fatalities, raising the death toll to 17,283, while the infection count climbed to 16,09,140 with 12,547 more cases, according to the official data.

Of the fresh COVID-19 deaths, Meerut reported 19 fatalities, Chandauli 15, Kanpur 14, Lucknow and Auriaya 12 each. Ten deaths each were reported from Jhansi and Gautam Buddh Nagar, the state government said in a statement issued here.

Of the 12,547 new cases, 879 were reported from Meerut, 801 from Gorakhpur and 617 from Lucknow.

A total of 28,404 COVID-19 patients recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours in the state, taking the total number of those recovered so far to 14,14,259.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 1,77,643, the statement said.

More than 2.56 lakh samples were tested in the past 24 hours. So far, over 4.44 crore samples have been tested in the state, it said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)