Agra, Jul 29 (IANS): With 24 fresh cases in the past 24 hours and one death due to Covid-19, the Agra district administration has scaled up testing on a daily basis, particularly in 88 containment zones.

So far 44,823 samples have been tested. The recovery rate is 81.19 per cent. Scores of teams of health workers have been conducting door to door surveys and providing prompt medicare to non-Covid patients.

Agra's death toll stands at 98 while the total number of Covid cases is 1,701. Of this 1,381 have recovered.

District authorities have clarified there would be no permission to open shops or markets during the weekend lockdown, ahead of the festivals. The market associations had demanded that sweet shops be allowed to open during the weekend.

In Mathura, the district administration clarified there would be no permission to open temples and organising religious programmes for the public. With testing stepped up, the new cases of Covid-19 are showing an upward trend.

In Agra, the municipal corporation has come under heavy fire from corporators and general public for not taking steps to sanitise and fumigate colonies and mohallas in the city interior.

"The weekend lockdown should have been used to clean up the mess, and sanitise all areas, but the authorities are dragging their feet," Satish Chandra, a resident of Trans Yamuna colony said.

Associations of parents in the city have been protesting for the past one month against managements of schools for charging fees for the lockdown period. Traders bodies have asked for cuts in electricity bills for the same period.

"Though the markets have opened five days a week, the economic activities have yet to pick up the momentum. The hotel and restaurant business have suffered the most which might not change anytime too soon," said senior hotelier Surendra Sharma, founder president of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association.