UP eases weekend COVID-19 lockdown, Sunday restrictions to continue

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday announced that movement of people will be allowed from 6 am-10 pm from Mondays to Saturdays with effect from 14 August.

People will mandatorily need to wear masks, observe social distancing and use sanitsier. Sunday lockdown or corona curfew will continue, Awanish K Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary-Home said

Movement of people allowed from 6 am-10 pm from Mondays to Saturdays, with effect from 14th Aug. People will mandatorily need to wear masks, observe social distancing & use sanitsier. Sunday lockdown/Corona Curfew to continue: Awanish K Awasthi, Addl Chief Secy, Home, Govt of UP

This comes just hours after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to consider a partial relaxation in the two-day weekly closure of shops and business establishments. He also sked the home department to present detailed guidelines in this regard.

In July, the state government had issued guidelines, according to which markets, shops and business establishments were allowed to function from 6 am to 10 pm from Monday to Friday, while Saturday and Sunday were the weekly closure days.

The chief minister's direction to consider providing partial relaxations came in the backdrop of declining Covid cases in the state. The situation has improved in the state as 12 districts don't have any single active Covid cases.

There is not a single Covid patient in Aligarh, Amethi, Chitrakoot, Etah, Firozabad, Gonda, Hathras, Kasganj, Pilibhit, Pratapgarh, Shamli and Sonbhadra districts. The recovery rate now stands at 98.6%.

Not even a single fresh case of the infection was reported in 59 of the state's 75 districts on Tuesday, whereas in the remaining 16 districts, the number of fresh cases was less than 10.