Lucknow, Jan 4 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh's COVID-19 tally reached 5,88,882 on Monday with the detection of 714 fresh cases, while the death toll linked to the pandemic rose to 8,413 after 10 more people succumbed to the infection, officials said.

Additional Chief Secretary Health Amit Mohan Prasad said the number of active cases in the state now stands at 12,505 -- the lowest in nearly six months.

Of the active COVID-19 cases, 5,012 are in home isolation and 1,339 at private hospitals, he said.

The recovery count reached 5,67,964 on Monday after 1,054 more patients were discharged from hospitals in Uttar Pradesh after recovered from the infection. The state has a COVID-19 recovery rate of 96.45 per cent, he said.

According to a health department bulletin, two deaths each were reported from Lucknow, Varanasi, Deoria and one each from Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Rae Bareli, Ghazipur in the past 24 hours. Lucknow reported 162 new COVID-19 cases, the bulletin said.

On Sunday, over 1.19 lakh tests were performed, taking the number of novel coronavirus tests done till now in the state to 2.44 crore.

Prasad said COVID-19 vaccine dry run will be conducted in all the 75 districts of the state on Tuesday at six places -- three each in rural and urban areas .

He said those returning to the state from the United Kingdom are being tested for COVID-19. Over 2,500 samples have been sent for testing and only 12 positive cases have been detected till now, he said, adding that two cases of the new strain of the virus have been confirmed so far. He said all necessary precautions are being taken to contain the fast-spreading new variant of COVID-19.

(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)