Coronavirus Pandemic: Over 2 lakh people are infected across the world.
A residential complex in Noida has been locked down for two days after one of the residents tested positive for coronavirus or COVID-19, taking the total number of cases in the city to five. Thousands live in the society in Sector-74.
The lockdown began at 10 am today. It will continue till 7 am on Monday for sanitisation, said officials. No one will be allowed to go out or come in the apartment complex till Monday. "During this period nobody would be allowed to get in or go out of the society except only in very essential cases. Everybody is requested to stay indoors," Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate BN Singh said in an order. "In order to break the chain of transmission of the disease the entire compound of the housing society was needed to be locked down on a temporary basis," it read.
Those violating the order enforced "under Epidemic Diseases Act-1897 section 2" will be penalised, said officials. They will be charged under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code or IPC.
On Friday, another housing society was put under a partial lockdown after a 21-year-old woman, who had travelled to France, tested positive for COVID-19, which has spread to over 140 countries since the outbreak was first reported in China.
Uttar Pradesh, one of the India's most populated states, has so far reported 33 cases of the highly contagious illness. India's count of COVID-19 infection has crossed the 250-mark and four deaths have been reported in the last two weeks.
Malls, schools, public places are being temporarily shut across the country to curb the spread of the illness. In Noida, large gatherings are banned, malls and spa centres have been closed.