As cases of infections continue to rise in Uttar Pradesh, medical experts have warned that the incubation period for coronavirus could ranges up to 28 days — 14 days longer than previously thought.

Senior physician Dr SK Kalra said the danger of infection is not limited to 14 days. “After a person is released from quarantine on completion of 14 days, he or she should be quarantined at home for another two weeks as the virus can manifest itself within 28 days,” Dr SK Kalra told India Today.

Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Medical Officer Dr Vinay Kumar told India Today that a fresh 28-day incubation period starts from the day a patient tests positive for Covid-19. Some patients tested negative in the first phase, but later tested positive during the home quarantine. He said those with flu-like symptoms are kept in isolation, while those who do not show any symptoms are kept in quarantine for 28 days in two phases of 14 days each.

On possible reasons behind late detection, Dr Satish Verma, chief resident at Agra district hospital, said initially the report is negative due to low viral load, but after 14 days, the viral load increases and the report comes positive. This is why regular sampling of the quarantined people is necessary, he added.

The UP government and local administration are meanwhile keeping an eye on the worsening situation in Agra, with an effort to eradicate the deadly virus from the district. Agra Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar told India Today that the district magistrates of Agra, Mathura, Firozabad, Mainpuri and Kasganj have been instructed to ensure that Covid-19 patients in their district are well cared for and the people of their district are not facing any problems.

He accepted that the rate of infection in the Agra division has increased and currently, one patient is being diagnosed every 36 minutes in Agra, but said the administration is making efforts to ensure that this rate of infection goes down.

However, 118 patients have been diagnosed in the past three days in Agra.

Agra Nodal officer ADG Ajay Anand said the lockdown is being strictly enforced in every district with special care of the police personnel.

There are several police personnel who are on 24 hours duty and many who have not seen their families in weeks. Such police personnel are being cared for by the department.

District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh said that the administration’s focus is also towards the families who subsist of daily wages and labour. The administration’s efforts are to make sure nobody in the district sleeps hungry.

He said there are 43 hotspots in the city where 14,000 people are in home quarantine. In places where home quarantine cases have come positive, mobile labs are sampling.