A homeless boy collects rotten fruits from a deserted fruit market during lockdown in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. The world's largest democracy went under the world's biggest lockdown Wednesday, with India's 1.3 billion people ordered to stay home in a bid to stop the coronavirus pandemic from spreading and overwhelming its fragile health care system as it has done elsewhere. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death
Uttar Pradesh's Yogi Adityanath government on Wednesday deployed over 12,000 mobile vans, e-rickshaws, and 'thelas' (handcarts) to ensure doorstep delivery of food items during the lockdown.
Briefing reporters, Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Avanish Awasthi, said that the Chief Minister was personally ensuring availability of essential commodities for the people.
He said that several medicine shops had started distance marking outside their shops to prevent crowding of customers.
Awasthi also said that 1,788 FIRs had been lodged for violation of the lockdown and 5,592 persons had been fined.
He said that 6,022 barriers had been set up in the state to lock movement of people and vehicles.
The Chief Minister's helpline is also calling up over 10,000 village heads to assure them that the government would solve problems, if any.
The state government has also clamped a ban on paan masala and gutkha since saliva is said to be a carrier of Coronavirus and those who chew tobacco tend to spit on the roads.
Meanwhile, the Lucknow district administration has ordered that all shops selling essential commodities will remain open from 6.a.m to 11.p.m while petrol pumps and medicine shops will remain open round the clock.
(With Inputs from IANS)
