Uttar Pradesh lifts COVID-19 curfew from all districts except Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Meerut

The Uttar Pradesh government announced that COVID-19 lockdown restrictions will be lifted in all districts except Lucknow, Meerut  and Gorakhpur, which have over 600 active cases. Lucknow had 999 cases, Gorakhpur 718, Saharanpur 955 and Meerut 1,179 active cases as of Sunday, according to a report in The Times of India. However, restrictions were eased in Saharanpur after cases fell below 600. Out of the 75 districts in Uttar Pradesh, 72 will allow markets outside containment zones to open from 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays, while schools, gyms, colleges, coaching institutions, cinemas, swimming pools, bars and shopping malls will remain shut. In all these districts, night and weekend curfew will remain in force. The state government, which claims to have vaccinated over two crore people so far, started the unlocking process on 1 June, ending the restrictions that had stayed in place during the second COVID-19 wave in districts where active cases fell below 600. On 31 May, the government said norms will be relaxed in 55 districts, even as 20 will see the continuation of the curfew. The districts that continued to follow restrictions included Lucknow, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Meerut, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Moradabad, Bulandshahr, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Lakhimpur Kheri, Jaunpur, Sonbhadra, Baghpat, Ghazipur, Bijnor, and Deoria. Apart from the rule pertaining to functioning markets, restaurants are allowed to offer home delivery, roadside eateries along highways can operate, government departments can function at a maximum 50 percent capacity on rotational basis, while private establishments with limited attendance. Banks and insurance companies can remain open. A maximum of five people are allowed at religious places, while 25 persons are allowed at wedding ceremonies or any function and no more than 20 people at funerals. On Saturdays and Sundays, a fogging and cleanliness campaign will be conducted across the state. Both the shopkeepers, staff and customers will have to adhere to basic COVID protocols of wearing face masks, social distancing and use of hand sanitisers, a state government order said. The corona curfew was eased in 64 districts from 2 June, with the nine districts where restriction was to remain in force including Meerut, Lucknow, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bareilly, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bulandshahr and Jhansi districts. Among the districts where curfew was relaxed were Lakhimpur, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Sonbhadra, Deoria, Baghpat, Prayagraj, Bijnor and Moradabad. By 5 June, the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government had ordered relaxation of restrictions in Bareilly and Bulandshahar from 7 June, taking the number of districts with relaxed norms to 67. In this week, active cases in the state fell below the 20,000 mark and Uttar Pradesh became the first to conduct over 5 crore COVID-19 tests. By Sunday, lifting of the partial corona curfew was announced in Varanasi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Muzzaffarnagar, effective from Monday, as active cases dipped below 600. Adityanath directed officials to begin developmental activity in rural areas by engaging MNREGS workers and the programme of providing loans to local units from banks in the coming week. The Yogi Adityanath-led government started conducting sero-sampling in 40 districts of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday with the aim of collecting 61,500 samples by 11 June to analyse the development of anti-bodies. Samples will be collected in the remaining 35 districts from 9 June onwards. With inputs from PTI