A night curfew has been announced in Uttar Pradesh from 11 pm to 5 am starting from tomorrow (Saturday) due to rising concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
In addition to this Uttar Pradesh government said that only 200 people could attend marriages and social functions, at which all necessary Covid-19 safety protocols must be followed. Including that all the shopkeepers and traders to follow the “no mask, no goods” policy said the government sources said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
All those are arriving from abroad in UP and other states have been asked to ensure that they are all tested for Covid-19 and specific attention should be paid to railway and bus stations.
Poll-bound UP becomes the second state, after Madhya Pradesh, to impose night-curfew restrictions.
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Chouhan yesterday said that a night curfew of 11 pm to 5 am would be enforced with immediate effect. However, the state has not yet reported an Omicron variant case.
The decision of the night curfew has been taken after a day; the Allahabad High Court asked the Election Commission to consider suspending Assembly elections due in two months.
Recalling the memories of the thousands of people not wearing face masks or practising social distancing – at campaign rallies in Bengal and other states amid the elections earlier this year, the High Court also requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban poll-related gatherings in the state.
Thirty-one new COVID-19 cases were reported across UP on Thursday – much lower than the tens of thousands of cases detected daily in April-May. The state has reported two Omicron cases so far.
Meanwhile, the Centre has advised States and UTs to not let their guard down and maintain their preparedness for fighting COVID19 (and its variants) in view of the new variant Omicron (designated as a Variant of Concern by WHO on 26th November 2021).
Union Health Secretary Shri Rajesh Bhushan reviewed the public health preparedness of the States for fighting COVID19 and the Omicron variant along with progress of vaccination with Health Secretaries and NHM MDs of States and UTs, through video conference (VC) today. He highlighted the trajectory of COVID and brought attention to emerging evidence on the Omicron variant of COVID-19 driving the growing number of cases worldwide.
India’s Active Caseload presently at 77,516. Active cases constitute 0.22% of the country’s total Positive Cases, which is lowest since March 2020.
#Unite2FightCorona #IndiaFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/F1wBPjJRCC
— Ministry of Health (@MoHFW_INDIA) December 24, 2021
The testing capacity across the country continues to be expanded. The last 24 hours saw a total of 11,65,887 tests being conducted. India has so far conducted over 66.98 Cr (66,98,09,816) cumulative tests.
While testing capacity has been enhanced across the country, Weekly Positivity Rate at 0.59% remains less than 1% for the last 40 days now. The Daily Positivity rate reported to be 0.57%. The daily Positivity rate has remained below 2% for last 81 days and below 3% for 116 consecutive days now.