Amid rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in Lucknow and other parts of Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday (April 12) asserted that his government would not impose a lockdown in the state to curb the spread of COVID-19 cases. The chief minister added that his government would not let the people of Uttar Pradesh die in misery. The COVID-19 situation in Uttar Pradesh has deteriorated significantly with the state reporting over 20,510 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. To contain the spread of the virus, the government has imposed a night curfew in several districts like Noida, Greater Noida, Lucknow, Kanpur and Varanasi.
“It is the responsibility of the officials to ensure beforehand that there is no shortage of hospital beds for the patients in the state. If needed, take over the private hospitals and medical colleges to overcome the shortcomings. Our priority has to be the implementation of an effective strategy to stop the spread of Covid-19. We will have to fight the pandemic vigorously with full preparation as there is no scope for any sort of negligence. Similar to the last year, we will have to fight this war with great strength. For the same, we will have to increase the beds in L-2 (with oxygen facility) and L-3 (with ventilators) hospitals in sufficient quantity,” the chief minister said at a review meeting held in Lucknow.
With new restrictions being imposed in UP, messages are being circulated on social media and WhatsApp groups that a weekend lockdown has been imposed in the state. Users have also shared screenshots of news websites claiming that the government has imposed a weekend lockdown to curb the COVID-19 surge in the state.
In light of spreading rumours, Info Uttar Pradesh Fact Check- the official fact-checking handle of Uttar Pradesh’s Public Relations department on Monday, April 12 took to Twitter to clarify that the news is fake and no weekend lockdown has been imposed in the state.
The tweet shared in Hindi roughly translates to, “News regarding weekend lockdown in Uttar Pradesh is being circulated on social media and WhatsApp groups. The news is baseless and there is no plan for any type of lockdown in the state.” The fact-checking committee has also appealed to people to avoid sharing such misleading news. Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath also ruled out lockdown as an option to counter the growing cases in the state. During a high-level review meeting on the COVID-19 situation, CM Adityanath said on Monday that his government would not let the people die in misery by imposing another lockdown. Though as measures taken by the government to improve the situation include a night curfew from 8 pm to 7 am in 10 worst-hit districts of UP.
