After the highest single-day spike in the number of coronavirus cases, the Uttar Pradesh Government has ordered the closure of all schools till April 30. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has also ordered a night curfew from 9 pm to 6 am in the districts which register 100 new infections in a day or 500 active cases.
The twin orders, shutting schools till April 30, Uttar Pradesh Government night curfew directions in the worst affected districts, came out of a review meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday, 11 April 2021, according to PTI.
Schools till April 30: Uttar Pradesh Government night curfew rules
The closure covers every school in the state, government and private, and the night curfew applies in any district that crosses either threshold, 100 new infections in a day or 500 active cases. Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj were already under night restrictions when the order went out, Scroll.in reported, and district magistrates had been handed powers earlier in April to impose local curbs on their own assessment. A day before the school order, the state had capped gatherings at religious places at five people ahead of Navratri and Ramzan, and warned that people found without masks would be penalised.
The restrictions imply on the coaching centres as well as the private schools. The prescheduled examinations can be held with some protocols in place. The instructions also say that the occupancy of any indoor programme should not be more than 50 per cent of the venue.
The UP government stressed the need to focus on “test, trace and treat” approach. The daily count of RT-PCR tests should be taken to one lakh. Minimum 30-35 persons who have come in contact with a Covid-19 patient should be traced.
The order, in brief:
| Measure | Detail |
|---|---|
| School closure | All schools and coaching centres shut till 30 April |
| Night curfew trigger | 100 new infections in a day, or 500 active cases |
| Curfew hours | 9 pm to 6 am |
| Indoor gatherings | Capped at 50 per cent of venue capacity |
| Daily RT-PCR target | One lakh tests |
For the private sector the order reads as a repeat of 2020 with narrower edges. Coaching centres are shut on the same terms as private schools, yet examinations that were already scheduled may still be conducted under Covid protocols, which keeps admission season tests alive on paper. The 50 per cent cap on indoor occupancy applies to any event a school or college might still hold, and enforcement of the curfew hours sits with the district administrations that also carry the test, trace and treat targets.
The numbers behind the shutdown
The directions came in the aftermath of a spike in coronavirus cases in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Allahabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Muzaffarnagar districts and the Lucknow civic body area.
On April 02, the UP government had imposed a complete shutdown of the schools for students of classes 1st to 8th till April 11. On Sunday, the state reported the highest single-day spike of 15,353 cases. 67 deaths have been reported due to covid-19. The death toll has reached 9,152 in the state, which has reported 6,92,015 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.
A statement by the UP government gave the numbers. Lucknow reported a maximum of 4,444 cases, followed by 1,740 in Varanasi, 1,565 in Allahabad and 881 in Kanpur.
The order came at the steepest point of the state’s second wave so far. On Saturday, 10 April, Uttar Pradesh had logged 12,787 infections, its third consecutive record in as many days, Scroll.in reported. The national picture was no better: India recorded 1,52,879 new cases on 11 April, at that stage the biggest one-day rise of the pandemic, according to health ministry figures cited in the same report.
For school managers the operative line remained the first one, no classes and no schools till April 30. Uttar Pradesh Government night curfew powers carried the rest of the burden in the cities, and Lucknow was told to arrange 2,000 additional intensive care beds and 2,000 more Covid beds within a week, Scroll.in reported, citing The Indian Express.
Tika Utsav and the testing push
Meanwhile, the UP chief minister said an effective COVID-19 vaccination drive should be carried out as a four-day “Tika Utsav” that began in the state on Sunday.
The vaccination festival ran from 11 to 14 April at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call, The Quint reported, with states asked to use the four days to widen coverage even as several of them flagged tight vaccine stocks. The Prime Minister described the festival as the start of a second big war on Covid-19 and appealed to those already vaccinated to help one more person get the jab, Deccan Herald reported. In Uttar Pradesh the drive opened on the same day as the school closure order, so district administrations began the week running vaccination camps and curfew patrols at once.
What has happened since
The calendar in the order did not hold. The curbs on schools till April 30, Uttar Pradesh Government night curfew powers and the one lakh daily testing target were all overtaken by the wave within weeks. On 14 April 2021 the Central Board of Secondary Education cancelled its own Class 10 examination and postponed Class 12, Careers360 reported, after a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.
The state board followed. In May 2021 Uttar Pradesh cancelled the UP Board Class 10 examination, and on 3 June 2021 it cancelled the Class 12 examination as well, Business Today reported. The decision came out of a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, with Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who holds the secondary education portfolio, in the room. “Examination for the UP board class 12 has been cancelled,” Additional Chief Secretary Navneet Sehgal told PTI. About 26 lakh candidates had registered for the Class 12 examination, and close to 30 lakh Class 10 students were promoted to Class 11 without sitting a board paper.
