Uttar Pradesh Sunday Lockdown Lifted As COVID-19 Cases Decrease

Uttar Pradesh: In view of the significant drop in the COVID-19 cases, the Yogi Adityanath government Friday completely lifted the lockdown across the state on Sunday.

The decision came as malls, markets and cinema halls were urging the Adityanath government to end the Sunday lockdown as it was affecting businesses.

The government said that as per the previous orders, the markets would remain closed on the scheduled days of the week.

Meanwhile, in a significant achievement, Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in the country to conduct over seven crore COVID-19 tests.

“The testing protocol by the World Health Organization for Uttar Pradesh is 32,000 tests per day, while the COVID testing in the state has averaged 2.5 lakh tests a day for the past few weeks,” a government spokesperson said.

Notably, as per the latest health bulletin released, UP has only 407 active cases. The state recorded 29 new Covid positive cases and 35 cured on August 19.

Free coronavirus infection was reported from 16 districts, with Lucknow reporting the maximum of five new cases.

The government spokesperson said that the COVID outbreak is under control due to aggressive testing.

“On an average, 2.3-2.5 lakh tests are being conducted in Uttar Pradesh in a day. On the scale of sample testing for every positive case, 39.9 tests are being conducted in the state,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying by IANS.

He pointed out that 70 per cent of the COVID-19 tests conducted since the outbreak of the second wave of coronavirus were in rural areas.

“More than 73,000 surveillance committees constituted by the Yogi Adityanath government are moving across 97,941 villages in all 75 districts for this activity, which began on May 5. We are targeting 100 per cent coverage of rural households,” the UP government spokesperson added.

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