As reported on 8th April, 2020, it has been decided by the Yogi Adityanath Government to seal 15 UP districts that have emerged as the COVID-19 spots till 15th April, 2020. The state government has further clarified that only specific localities within these 15 districts will be sealed off and completely sanitised till 15th April, 2020.
These 15 districts include Gautambuddh Nagar (Noida), Ghaziabad, Meerut, Lucknow, Agra, Kanpur, Varanasi, Shamli, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Bulandhshahr, Bareilly, Basti, Maharajganj and Sitapur.
A total of 343 positive cases have been reported across the state. The measure to enable the seal has been taken to prevent further spread of the virus.
The Chief secretary of the state, RK Tiwari has said, "15 districts - including Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Lucknow, Agra, Shamli, Saharanpur - which have viral load of COVID19, to be sealed. Only home delivery & medical teams will be allowed there. It's being done to prevent community spread, as numbers are high,"
Further to which the information Director, Shishir said, "All coronavirus hotspots in 15 districts will be completely sealed till April 15 morning. Only home delivery will be allowed. These are places where a number of cases have been found,"
Additional Home chief secretary Awanish Awasthi said, "We have taken this decision as we observed a drop in the case load of areas where such a sealing was imposed. In Agra this had been implemented in an efficient way in some areas and the results were encouraging,"
