Utter Pradesh: Uttar Pradesh has seen a sharp decline in the number of active cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in less than one month, the state government said on Wednesday. From a peak of 3,10,783 on April 30, the number of active cases came down to 62,271 on Tuesday (just 20 percent), the state government data showed. The state government also said that the recovery rate in India's most populous state has surpassed 95 percent. The state recorded 3,371 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, while 10,540 people recovered from the infection, the government data showed on Wednesday.

The daily Covid positivity rate - the number of samples testing positive for the infection from total tests done - on Tuesday dipped below 1 percent in the state again for the first time since the middle of last month, according to the official data.

The positivity rate was at its highest - at 16.84 percent on April 24 - during the second wave of the pandemic, and has now come down to a low of 0.93 percent. The state government also said that Uttar Pradesh recorded more daily recoveries than the number of fresh cases for the 25th consecutive day.

The state conducted as many as 3,58,273 Covid-19 tests in the last 24 hours, which according to the Uttar Pradesh government is a nationwide record. On Tuesday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said that an aggressive campaign is being run in the state against Covid-19 on the lines of the drive against encephalitis disease.

"We are running an aggressive campaign against the third wave of COVID-19 on the lines of the encephalitis campaign as we were able to bring down the encephalitis death rate to a minimum level during the last three years," he said in Gorakhpur."Preparation in each district is in full swing. Preparation is underway for a 100-bed PICU ward at each medical college," Adityanath added. He also said that the state government has already started making preparations for the third wave of Covid-19 on a war footing.