Lucknow
Alarmed with the rising daily caseload of coronavirus, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday remarked that a stringent 15-day lockdown may be the only way to combat the virus. Observing that the measures taken by the government are not sufficient, a bench of justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar said, “We do not doubt the government's will but we are equally conscious that measures being taken are not enough and needed to be made more severe and stringent but of course, workable too at the same time.”
The bench was hearing a public interest litigation seeking better facilities at quarantine centres. Stressing on the lockdown, it noted, “When we have to balance between bread and butter and life, the latter has to prevail. Food is for life to survive and not vice-versa. We do not think a lockdown for a fortnight will bring the economy of the state to such a halt that people would die of hunger.”
The HC asked the chief secy if there was any plan of action to contain the infection when the economy was reopened after the nationwide lockdown and if it was ever implemented. It asked the chief secretary to come up with a road map to tackle the spread of the infection from now onwards by the next date of hearing, which is slated on August 28.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath | ANI
Caseload over 2 lakh; Yogi vows 1.5L tests a day
The number of Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh crossed 2-lakh mark on Tuesday with a daily rise in new cases being above 5,000 in the past fortnight. Lucknow and Kanpur are currently the biggest hotspots in the state, reporting 600-800 cases every day.
Taking stock of the Covid-19 situation in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth ordered the health department to further scale up the testing taking it to 1.5 lakh tests a day. The state government has been conducting 1.4 lakh tests a day, the CM added.
