Active COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh has reached 58,000. (File photo)
The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday announced new restrictions amid an alarming rise in coronavirus cases, imposing night curfew in districts seeing a surge in cases and closure of schools till April 30.
At the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, a decision was also taken to conduct atleast 1 lakh RT-PCR tests daily to identify people who have contracted the deadly disease. Those districts reporting over 100 daily cases or with 500 active cases will be placed under night curfew, according to the order.
Earlier, the government had delegated the powers of night curfew to district magistrates. Many places, including state capital Lucknow and other districts like Kanpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj are already under curfew.
The government - following a review meeting yesterday - had announced restrictions on gatherings of five or more people in religious places for effective control of the Covid pandemic during the upcoming festivals of Navratri and Ramzan.
Both Navratri, the auspicious nine nights festival celebrated by Hindus, and Ramzan - the most awaited time of the year for Muslims - begin on April 13th. The Ramzan date however depends on the sighting of the crescent moon locally.
Uttar Pradesh had added 12,787 new cases on Saturday, taking the state's infection numbers to 6,76,739.
State capital Lucknow reported 4,059, followed by 1,460 from Allahabad, 983 from Varanasi, 706 from Kanpur, according to the state government.
The state also reported 48 fresh deaths during the period to take the total number of fatalities to 9,085.
The count of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 58,801, the state statement said in a statement.