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With the surge in novel coronavirus positive cases in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered closure of coaching institutions and all schools and colleges from Class I to Class XII till April 30 and has also ordered that not more than five people should be allowed entry into religious places at a time.
"Schools and colleges up to Class XII should be closed till April 30 but pre-scheduled examinations will continue. The staff can be called for administrative work," Yogi told reporters here on Sunday.
The state government had earlier closed schools up to Class VIII till April 11.
"Traders should maintain social distancing while traffic in the containment zone should be restricted. Strict action should be taken against those who do not wear masks," the chief minister said and added that on Saturday, over 56,000 people had been penalised across the state for not wearing masks.
The state government has already restricted assembly of not more than 50 people in a closed area and 100 in open for public function with government permission. It has also ordered that all the functions, including marriages, should end by 21:00 hours before the night curfew is imposed.
"Effective steps should be taken, keeping in mind the goal of 'Test, Trace and Treat', for prevention of novel coronavirus infection. Testing should be increased and over one lakh tests should be done daily by RT-CPR method. It should be ensured that all government and private testing labs function to their full potential," he said.
Later, in a review meeting, the chief minister directed officials to work out an effective strategy to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus infection in Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi and Prayagraj. He declared that Era Medical College, TS Mishra Medical College and Integral Medical College of Lucknow would work as dedicated Covid hospitals.
"It should be ensured that at least 700 beds are available for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in each Covid hospital. For this, all necessary medical resources should be arranged," he said.
The chief minister stressed on availability of medical oxygen, medical staff, essential medicines and equipment and backup in all Covid hospitals. He said ventilators and high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) must be available in Level-2 and Level-3 Covid hospitals.
He said to maintain adequate availability of ventilators and HFNCs, additional arrangements should be made as required by constantly monitoring them. He also asked the officials to increase the number of beds at Level-2 and Level-3 Covid hospitals.
The chief minister said that in districts where 100 or more COVID-19 cases were being detected daily or where the total number of active cases was more than 500, 'Corona curfew' should be imposed from 9 pm to 6 am.
The chief minister said that sanitation and sanitisation played an important role in effective control over the coronavirus and in view of this, the work of sanitation and sanitisation in urban and rural areas should be done by the Urban Development and Rural Development departments on a mission mode. He said that sanitisation would not only help in controlling novel coronavirus infection but will also be useful in prevention of dengue, malaria, chikungunya and Japanese Encephalitis.
The chief minister said that the Integrated Command and Control Centre should be actively operated. He said in view of the usefulness of monitoring committees, they should be linked to various activities of Covid management.
He said all Covid frontline workers must use masks, gloves and sanitisers. He also stressed on making Covid testing at railway and bus stations and airports more effective.
The chief minister asked officials to make people constantly aware about prevention from COVID-19 and said that the public address systems should be widely used and people should be made aware of the need to adhere to social distancing and mandatory use of masks.