With Ramadan around the corner, the Yogi Adityanath government has banned the gathering of more than five people at any religious place in the state capital to break the chain of the second wave of coronavirus.
A decision to this effect was taken after 4,078 active cases were reported on Saturday in Lucknow. The Chief Minister chaired a high-level meeting and passed orders to ban mass gatherings at religious places.
Only five persons will be allowed at a time in any religious places, including mosques, temples and Churches. The state government has also banned parties, dinners and any type of personal / election gatherings late at night after the imposition of night curfew.
The decision may affect members of the minority community who offer five-time namaz during the holy month of Ramadan and organize iftar and shahri on daily basis.
With the number of cases rising alarmingly each passing day, the Chief Minister has directed to turn three private medical colleges into dedicated Covid Management Centres and ordered to make available 2,000 ICU beds in the state capital.
A 300-bed new covid hospital started functioning at Balrampur Hospital on Sunday. To meet the crisis and shortage, all hospitals have been asked to keep buffer stocks of oxygen, medicines, PPE kits and other medical equipments.
Such is a situation that more than 80 percent of infected persons are being advised to quarantine themselves at home to ease out the situation in government and private hospitals.
At two electric crematoriums in Lucknow, there is a waiting of 10-12 hours for families to cremate their beloved ones who died due to coronavirus. The Lucknow Municipal Corporation has deployed teams of health workers in every locality to sanitize all Covid-affected areas.
Though 14 districts have been placed under night curfew the step has not been able to check spike in new active cases. “If the same situation continued, the state government will have no option left than to opt of complete lockdown to break the chain,” said a senior government official.
