No Need For Lockdown In UP, Says Govt.; Lists Steps Taken To Tackle COVID-19 Cases

Lockdown In UP: After Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to shut down the capital city Lucknow, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, and Kanpur Nagar till April 26 due to the rise in COVID cases, the government of the state has said that the lockdown will not be imposed.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath, interacted on Monday and talked about the efforts that the state government has taken to stop the spread of the virus. On this, the Chief Minister said that the state government has been working with full commitment to control the spread of the virus and strategies are in place for testing and tracking of continuous oxygen supply in the state.

He also said to ANI that ICU beds have been made available across the state for COVID-19 patients.

The Chief Minister's Office had previously said that there is no need for a complete lockdown in the state and that the weekend lockdowns are enough to curb the spread of the virus. The additional chief secretary of information, Navneet Sehgal spoke to ANI and said that there will be no lockdown imposed in the state and the government is submitting a reply to the court regarding the issue.

About the steps taken to tackle the rising pandemic, the Chief Minister has said that a new consignment of 20,000-30,000 Remdesivir will be received on Monday and all the oxygen produced by the industrial units should only be used for medical purposes.

A new oxygen plant with a capacity of 220 cylinders will be installed and will be made operational in about 3 days. Hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 have made with a capacity of 225 beds at the Balrampur Hospital in Lucknow and more beds are to be added.

In the state, 108 ambulances will be dedicated to COVID-19 patients, and tests will be done rapidly in both government and private laboratories. The COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh reached 28,287 on Monday which took the total tally of cases to 879,831 with 176 deaths on Monday making it the highest so far.