Allahabad: On a day when Uttar Pradesh recorded a nearly 50 per cent jump in daily Covid-19 cases, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to check the viability of vaccinating people of all age groups and not just those above the age of 45 years. The High Court also asked the state government to examine the viability of imposing night curfew “to check late evening and high social gatherings”.

Advising door-to-door vaccination programme amid the second wave of coronavirus, a bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Siddhartha Varma, while hearing a public interest litigation, said that the government should check the feasibility of inoculating students who are to appear in the Uttar Pradesh High School and Intermediate examinations. The court directed the district administration and police officials to “get into action” and ensure 100 per cent adherence to wearing masks.
Officials should see that no crowding takes place in any place across the state, and if any particular place is likely to get crowded, then it should cordon off that area, the court observed.

On the upcoming panchayat elections, the High Court said that the polling should be conducted in a manner that a congregation of people does not take place. The court’s directions come as Covid-19 cases saw a huge leap on Tuesday with 5,928 people testing positive in the last 24 hours. On Monday, 3,999 people had tested positive.

Nearly 23,000 people have been infected in the first six days of April. The number of active cases in the state also rose to 27,509 – the last time the state had more than 27,000 cases was on October 25 last year. Lucknow reported the most – 1,188 cases — followed by 915 in Prayagraj, 711 in Varanasi, 306 in Kanpur Nagar, 146 in Gorakhpur, 144 in Saharanpur, 122 in Meerut and 110 in Jhansi. The last 24 hours also reported 30 more deaths, taking the total death count to 8,924.

Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal said that with the increasing number of new cases, the state now has 8,469 containment zones with around 3,28,000 people in them. At least 540 persons are in institutional quarantine. Meanwhile, Lt Gen Bipin Puri, the vice-chancellor of King George Medical University, has also tested positive for Covid-19. He had received the second dose of his vaccine on March 25, and was infected by coronavirus last August.

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