Uttar Pradesh: Only 4 districts now under Covid curbs

Uttar Pradesh on Sunday continued to register a decline in Covid-19 cases, with the state health bulletin reporting that only four districts — Meerut, Lucknow, Saharanpur and Gorakhpur — now have more than 600 active cases.

As per the bulletin, the patient count dropped below 600 in the districts of Varanasi, Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida), Muzaffarnagar and Ghaziabad. As a result, 71 of the state’s 75 districts are now free from the partial Covid curfew announced over a month ago. Last week, the number was 55.

In the last week, both Ghaziabad and Noida have been reporting less than 50 cases per day with an average of two deaths daily. On Saturday, Noida had 43 cases while Ghaziabad reported only 23 fresh infections.

The unlockdown process will be followed as per the state government directives and its list of rules and regulations. For government offices, Group A services will be allowed to function with full capacity while group B offices will operate with 50% capacity.

The state on Sunday reported 1,165 new cases in 24 hours while 2,446 persons were reported to have recovered. In total, there are 17,928 Covid patients in Uttar Pradesh at present. Out of them, 10,141 people are in home isolation.

A week ago, the state government had decided to relax the partial Covid curfew in districts with fewer than 600 patients. As per the order, the curfew restrictions will kick in automatically if the active caseload in any district crosses 600. Similarly, the curbs will be eased if the caseload drops below 600.

Meanwhile, the state claimed to have administered over two crore vaccine doses since the start of the inoculation drive in mid-January. Last month, the state government had announced a target of vaccinating one crore people in June as part of its “Mission June” programme.