Agra, Sep 27 (IANS): The number of fresh Covid-19 cases in Agra has come down below 80 in the past few days, after peaking to around 150 a day last week.

In the past 24 hours, 79 new cases were reported. District health officials said the recovery rate too had improved to 80.85 per cent. The number of deaths is 123.

The total number of cases now stands at 5,489. Of this 4,438 have been discharged from hospitals. The case fatality rate is 2.24 per cent and the sample positivity rate is 3.04 per cent. The total number of samples collected is 1,80,351. Each day between 2,200 to 2,500 samples are being tested, health officials said.

A senior gynaecologist Divya Prakash succumbed to Covid-19 in a Delhi hospital after battling for over three months. One more senior doctor and three health workers of the SN Medical College tested positive on Saturday.

Agra's well known orthopaedic surgeon D.V. Sharma after his recovery in a Delhi hospital has made an emotional appeal to the people to follow guidelines sincerely and fight fear.

The nodal officer appointed for Agra by the state government warned people not to move out of their homes without masks. The police had been directed to books violators of Covid-19 guidelines.