Amid Covid surge, Uttar Pradesh announces lockdown on weekends

“This is being done basically to stop the spread of infection through unwanted physical movement. Economic activities will, however, not suffer,” he added.

The lockdown will remain effective in both urban and rural areas of the state. “It (lockdown) will be in place for the month of July at least,” Awasthi said.

On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh recorded another peak in the daily new cases of novel coronavirus with 1,403 new infection while capital Lucknow recorded 202 new cases – the highest in the state. With this, the state’s caseload has gone up to 35,092. In the past 24 hours, 25 people infected with SARS-CoV-2 have died, taking the state’s Covid toll to 913.

Lucknow Chief Medical Officer Dr Narendra Agarwal said that the fresh cases in the district have been reported from 41 different spots. “Of these highest 14 are from the Gomti Nagar area, 10 from the district Cantonment area, eight from the DG office, six from Mandi Samiti on Sitapur road, three from the police headquarters in Mahanagar, two from the homeguards headquarter and the other three are doctors of the King George’s Medical University (KGMU).”

KGMU spokesperson Dr Sudhir Singh said that among those who have tested positive, one is from the institute’s medicine department, and rest are junior residents at the hospital’s ENT department. “We have prepared a list of their first-degree contacts and they will be tested on the fifth day. Till then they will stay in home quarantine,” said Singh.