Lucknow, Feb 16 : The Covid cases in Lucknow have increased after recording a decline for four days. At least 279 people have tested positive for Covid in the past 24 hours. The case count was nearly 27 per cent more than Monday's 203. With this the tally of the third wave that started on December 22, has reached 56,658. In all, 54,270 patients have recovered, while 36 could not survive. The number of active cases as on Tuesday evening was 2,352. "The severity of the third wave has been lesser than the second wave. It might be because of large-scale vaccination or due to the less virulent variant of the virus prevalent at present," said a senior health officer. Among the fresh cases, the maximum, 52, were reported from Chinhat, followed by Aliganj (44) and Indiranagar (32). The remaining cases were from other areas. Meanwhile, at least 18,651 people were vaccinated against Covid in the district on Tuesday. Altogether, 4,962 people got the first dose, 12,038 took the second and 1,651 precautionary received booster dose. /IANS