The Uttar Pradesh government has announced that movement of people will be allowed from 6 am to 10 pm from Mondays to Saturdays with effect from August 14.
As per the new directive issued on Wednesday, the curfew will not be implemented on Saturday but will stay in effect on Sunday.
“People will mandatorily need to wear masks, observe social distancing and use sanitiser. Sunday lockdown or corona curfew will continue,” said Awanish K Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary-Home.
This comes just hours after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed officials to consider a partial relaxation in the two-day weekly closure of shops and business establishments.
In July, the state government had issued guidelines, according to which markets, shops and business establishments were allowed to function from 6 am to 10 pm from Monday to Friday, while Saturday and Sunday were the weekly closure days.
Previously, hotels, restaurants, and shopping malls in UP were allowed to open with 50% capacity from 7am to 9pm on all weekdays. Other standalone shops and market complexes were also allowed to be open for five days a week.
The state continues to allow no more than 50 persons at a time allowed to gather in religious places, wedding ceremonies and other social gatherings.
The chief minister’s direction to consider partial relaxations came against the backdrop of declining Covid-19 cases in the state. The situation has improved in the state as 12 districts in Uttar Pradesh have zero active Covid-19 cases.
With a recovery rate of 98.6 per cent, Aligarh, Amethi, Chitrakoot, Etah, Firozabad, Gonda, Hathras, Kasganj, Pilibhit, Pratapgarh, Shamli, and Sonbhadra are among the districts with no active cases.
Implementing measures such as the intensive ‘Trace, Test & Treat’ and prevention through vaccination and partial coronavirus curfews to decimate the pandemic, the UP government worked with a multipronged approach to minimise its devastating impact.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh reported no fresh Covid-19 cases in 59 districts, while 27 new covid-19 cases were reported across the state in the past 24 hours.