LUCKNOW: With Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Kanpur accounting for more than 50% of the daily Covid cases and also the total active cases in Uttar Pradesh, the government has capped the attendance in government and private offices to 50%. The order will be applicable till April 30.
Additional chief secretary (health) Amit Mohan Prasad shot a letter to the district magistrates of the four sensitive districts on Friday, asking them to implement the order with immediate effect.
“In view of the rising cases of Covid-19 and to break the chain of infection, it has been decided that in your districts, only 50% of the staff in government and private offices will attend work on any given day. Arrangements should be made to allow the remaining staff to work from home,” he said. The official said, a roster should be prepared by the officer in-charge so that employees can be called to office on a rotational basis.
For government offices, including the secretariat, Vidhan Sabha and Vishan Parishad secretariats, chief secretary RK Tiwari has said that a weekly roster system should be made for all employees with an exception of class I officers. The order will also not be applicable to staff directly associated with Covid-19 or other emergency work.
“This particular strain of the virus is highly infectious and the government’s aim is to limit the number of people who can be exposed to an infected person. This will also ensure that work is not affected as offices are not being shut down completely,” said an official.
The chief minister had earlier deputed special secretary level officials to all the four districts as nodal officers, to coordinate between various agencies to ensure there was no shortage of beds, testing or vaccinations in these districts. Health minister Jai Pratap Singh said while facilities are being increased across the state, these four districts, which have been contributing more than 50% of the state’s daily positive cases for the past three to four days at least.
On Friday, Lucknow reported 2,934 cases, which took the active caseload to 13,478. Prayagraj saw 1,016 cases and an active caseload of 5,502, while Varanasi reported 845 cases and 4,553 active cases. Kanpur registered the fourth highest number of cases in the state with 522 positive and 2,477 cases. The new cases were 54.84% of the state’s total cases, while the four districts accounted for 53.84% of the state’s total till Friday.