Fact Check: Yogi Govt to impose weekend lockdown in Uttar Pradesh? Here's what's official

Update on April 16: 

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday announced a Sunday lockdown in the state. Essential services will remain operations but apart from that, all the markets will remain shut. An extensive sanitation campaign will be conducted every Sunday to control the surge of COVID-19. A fine of Rs 1000 will be imposed for not wearing masks. 

Claim

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.

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.

UP Government debunks lockdown rumours 

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.

Other 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.  The state government has also suspended classes I to XII till May 15  and postponed all examinations that were scheduled to be conducted during this period. The 10th and 12th examinations of the Secondary Education Council would be held after May 20 and a new schedule would be considered in the first week of May.

Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday reported 67 coronavirus deaths as it witnessed 20,510 fresh cases, its highest single-day numbers that pushed the state’s infection count to 7,44,021, according to a senior official. So far, 9,376 people have died from the infection in the state, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Amit Mohan Prasad said.