Covid curfew extended in UP till May 17

The Uttar Pradesh government once again announced extension of the Covid curfew by a week on Sunday. The curbs which were supposed to be lifted on Monday (May 10) will last till 7 am on May 17.

A top official said in Lucknow on Sunday that as per Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s directive, the corona curfew which commenced on April 30, a day after panchayat elections ended, was extended till May 17 morning.
Earlier the government had clamped weekend curfew from 8 pm on April 30 (Friday) till May 4 (Tuesday) morning. It was later extended twice and was scheduled to end on May 10 morning.

“The move is aimed at breaking the chain of coronavirus infection across the state even as the number of fresh cases has been receding and the recovery rate going up each day,” the official said.

During this period, all essential services will be allowed and vaccination drive will continue. Shops selling medicines, vegetables, groceries and also industrial units will continue to operate. It was also decided to intensify the sanitisation drive in all 75 districts to break the infection chain.

Uttar Pradesh has been witness to a worrying spurt in corona infection cases over the past few weeks. Yogi claimed that the current strain of coronavirus is constantly changing and is 30-50 times more infectious than the first variant.

Additional Chief Secretary, Information, Navneet Sehgal said that the government is constantly taking necessary steps to break the Corona infection chain. “Extending state-wide weekly curbs and now partial corona curfew is a step in this direction,” he said.

Sehgal further said that industrial units have not been kept closed during Corona curfew and local administration has been told that identity cards of the employees working in these units, workers of essential services, employees of Health department and media personnel should be treated as e-pass.