E-Paper
Little possibility of lifting lockdown, says top Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat
Uttar Pradesh has recorded 305 cases of coronavirus across 31 of the state’s 75 districts so far.
A top Uttar Pradesh government official has ruled out the possibility of lifting the 21-day lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus when it ends on April 14.
“There is little possibility of lifting lockdown after April 15 as claimed in a section of the media. We will not be in a position to lift the lockdown even if a single case of Covid-19 is left in Uttar Pradesh. So it can take time,” said additional chief secretary (home) Avanish Awasthi, according to ANI.
Uttar Pradesh has recorded 305 cases of coronavirus in the state so far. Three people have died of Covid-19 in Basti, Meerut and Varanasi. Those who have tested positive, are spread across 31 of the state’s 75 districts have so far
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The countrywide lockdown came into force on March 25 on the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an effort to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus that now affected more than 4000 people across the country and claimed more than a 100 lives.
On Sunday, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said that the government must prevent people from spilling out on the streets when the lockdown is lifted.
“All the hard work the state did would come to a nought if people crowd at the end of the lockdown. So we have to strategise accordingly. Please come up with suggestions to help the government,” Adityanath told MPs and central ministers from Uttar Pradesh during a video conference.
He also told the MPs and ministers that the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi had undermined the state’s hard work in checking the spread of Sars-Cov-2 but the government was tackling even that.
