Lockdown may be extended; Tablighi Jamaat has added to the problem

 

Lucknow: In view of the spike in Corona cases in the state, it may be too early to open the lockdown on April 15, said the additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi while talking to reporters here on Monday.

He said that the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had called a meeting to review the measures for prevention and containment of Corona. Till Monday, the number of positive cases for COVID-19 has increased to 305 in the state. Due to the Tablighi Jamaat, there has been a rapid increase in Corona cases in the state. In view of this, the CM has appealed to the citizens to cooperate with the state government during the lockdown.

Awasthi said that the CM is serious about opening the lockdown. So far 1600 attendees of Tablighi Jamaat have been identified of which 1200 people have also been quarantined. He said that the religious leaders have also suggested that the lockdown should not be fully opened. The religious leaders have also promised to give full support to the Yogi government.

He said that 27 new cases were reported between April 5 and 6. Among them 21 cases are related to Tablighi Jamaat from different places including Lucknow (5), Kanpur (1) , Shamli (5), Bijnor (1), Sitapur (8) and Prayagraj (1).

He said that the reports of 159 people associated to Tablighi Jamaat have come positive, and they have been quarantined. Out of 159 cases, 29 are from Agra, 12 from Lucknow, 14 from Ghaziabad, 13 from Saharanpur, 13 from Meerut, 13 from Shamli, 8 from Sitapur, 7 from Kanpur Nagar, 6 from Maharajganj, 5 from Ghazipur, 4 each from Firozabad, Hathras and Varanasi, 3 each from Hapur, Pratapgarh, Lakhimpur Kheri and Azamgarh, 2 each from Jaunpur, Baghpat, Rae Bareli, Banda and Mirzapur,  and 1 each from Barabanki, Hardoi, Shahjahanpur, Prayagraj and Auraiya.

He informed that on the instructions of the CM the process of upgrading the labs built in 10 medical colleges at 3 levels has been started. The work of upgrading the labs of medical colleges of Meerut, Jhansi, Gorakhpur, Saifai, Kanpur and Prayagraj and 3 medical colleges of Lucknow with the help of Uttar Pradesh Covid Care Fund has been started.

Awasthi said that as per CM’s instructions the process of setting up Molecular Lab is also being started at the earliest in 14 other medical colleges where there are no such labs. For this purpose, medical colleges of Ambedkar Nagar, Kannauj, Jalaun, Azamgarh, Saharanpur, Banda, Badaun, Gautam Budh Nagar, Ayodhya, Basti, Bahraich, Firozabad, Shahjahanpur and Greater Noida have been included.