Offices and markets to remain closed on weekends in UP amid COVID-19 pandemic

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday issued fresh unlock guidelines for the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in the state which will be applicable across the state from Monday. As per the guidelines, all markets will be allowed to remain open from Monday to Friday while the sanitisation process will be carried out over the weekends. The chief minister has directed the administration to be alert to the Covid-19 situation in Kanpur, Varanasi, Baliya, Kushinagar and Deoria.

Factory operations, movement of goods and vehicles carrying essential commodities will be permitted and other economic activities will continue. The chief minister also directed the administration to enhance the state’s Covid-19 testing capacity to 50,000 tests daily.

Large-scale construction work, including dam or express-way building, among other such operations shall continue while observing social distancing and other preventive measures.

The chief minister also called for a massive Covid-19 campaign across the state to educate people about the disease and the significance of wearing masks and adhering to social distancing and other preventive measures. Chief minister Adityanath also directed the administration to arrange for pulse oximeter at village and ward level.

Uttar Pradesh is currently under a strict lockdown keeping in view the rise in coronavirus cases. The 55-hour-long lockdown kicked off from 10 pm on Friday and will remain till 5 am on Monday. The Yogi-Adityanath government, however, described it as the imposition of curbs on certain activities to keep the spread of virus under check. Barring essential services, everything else is shut across the state till Monday 5 am.

On Saturday, the state recorded 1,403 cases, up from a high of 1,347 a day before. Uttar Pradesh’s Covid-19 has crossed the 35,000-mark. As many as 22,689 patients have recovered across the state while the coronavirus death toll stands at 913.