A deserted Lucknow University campus after being shut down by the administration on Wednesday. (Express photo by Vishal Srivastav) With a surge in the number of Covid cases in several districts of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday allowed the administration to take necessary decisions regarding implementation of Covid protocol.
Hours after the CM meeting, the Lucknow administration announced to impose night curfew in the Lucknow municipal corporation area.
Officials said night curfew will be imposed between 9 pm and 6 am from Thursday and will continue till April 16 morning. Important services will, however, be allowed. Night shift government and semi-government officials and those involved in important services will be exempted from the curfew.
The CM held the meeting through videoconferencing to assess the Covid-19 situation in the state during which he directed officials to increase contact tracing. He added that in districts reporting over 100 cases in a day, or having more than 500 active cases, the DMs can take decision over closing secondary schools. In such districts the administration can take decisions on controlling travel in the night, however necessary services like transportation of medicines and food items should not be hindered.
The CM further directed that proper availability of PPE kits, pulse oximetres, infrared thermometers, sanitisers, antigen kits and all other important logistics be ensured in all districts. Out of all the Covid tests conducted in a day, at least 50 per cent are to be conducted using RT-PCR method and rapid antigen tests are to be intensified at railway stations, airports and bus stations. In the coming days, specials trains will be run from highly-affected states like Maharashtra.
In Lucknow the district administration has also issued orders to shut all government, private and government aided colleges, educational institutions and coaching institutions, except medical, nursing and paramedical institutions, till April 15. However all recognised educational institutions will be allowed to conduct examinations and practical while strictly following all Covid protocols.
Meanwhile, at least 30 doctors from the King George Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow tested positive.
According to officials at the university, nearly half of these doctors were given their second dose of Covid vaccine in the end of March, and the remaining of them have taken their first shot. KGMU Vice Chancellor Lt Gen Bipin Puri is among those who tested positive. Puri received the second dose of his vaccine on March 25, and had tested positive for coronavirus in August last year too.
βThe KGMU administration is very much determined to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and in that regard a screening of doctors and healthcare staff was started. During the screening at different departments, around 30-40 residents were confirmed to be positive. The administration is trying its best to stop the spread in the first stage itself. The screening process is still to continue,β said KGMU spokesperson Sudhir Singh in a statement issued.
Talking to The Indian Express he later confirmed that around 50 per cent of the resident doctors have already taken their second dose of the vaccine. Most of the remaining doctors have taken the first dose of the vaccine.
With chances of another peak of coronavirus cases as it had been witnessed in September last year, at least 28,971 people tested positive for coronavirus in the first week of April. This comes as 6,023 people tested positive in the last 24 hours β the highest single-day jump since September 18 last year.
If compared with the week before, just 7,740 people had tested positive in the last seven days of March. With the addition, the state now has 31,987 active cases β more than three times than what it had in the end of last week. The number of deaths is also increasing in the state as 40 Covid positive patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the death count to 8,964 by Wednesday.
Since the beginning of the pandemic in Uttar Pradesh, last September was the worst month in terms of fresh positive cases reported, and October had the highest number of active cases. In the first week of September, the state reported 42,374 positive cases. The highest weekly jump in Uttar Pradesh was from September 6 to 13 when 45,753 people had tested positive.
The higher number of positive cases from KGMU came at a time when Lucknow remained the worst-affected district in the state for over seven months. Lucknow now has reported 1,333 positive cases in the last 24 hours, and has 8,852 active cases. The rest of the new cases include 811 from Prayagraj, 593 from Varanasi, 300 from Kanpur Nagar, 188 from Jhansi, 159 from Gorakhpur, 126 from Meerut, 125 from Gautam Buddh Nagar, 109 from Jaunpur and 100 from Azamgarh.
Taking to the media earlier in the day, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said the work of surveillance is on in the state, and given the increasing number of cases the state government has decided to reactivate the system of community surveillance, gram nigrani samitis and mohalla nigrani samitis. The samitis will have to ensure that those coming from outside in their respective areas should get tested for coronavirus.
Making an appeal to all the people above 45 years of age to get themselves vaccinated, he said 65,00,506 people across the state have received the first dose of vaccine, while 11,67,323 of them have received both the doses.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
