Despite a fall in fresh COVID-19 cases, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided not to allow installation of Ganesh idols at public places and has appealed to the people to celebrate the festival at homes or at temples.

In his directive, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that all necessary preparations should be made in view of the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. He appealed to the people to install Ganesh idols at their homes or worship in the temple.

“No idol should be installed in a public place. The Ganesh Chaturthi festival should be celebrated with Covid protocol,” he said during Covid review meeting here on Thursday.

In the meeting, the chief minister was informed that in the last 24 hours, 11 new cases of coronavirus infection had been reported in the state.

During this period 24 COVID-19 patients recovered and at present there are 199 active cases in the state.

In as many as 33 districts, namely Aligarh, Amroha, Ayodhya, Baghpat, Ballia, Balrampur, Banda, Basti, Bahraich, Bhadohi, Bijnor, Chandauli, Chitrakoot, Deoria, Etah, Fatehpur, Ghazipur, Gonda, Hamirpur, Hapur, Hardoi, Hathras, Kasganj, Kaushambi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Moradabad, Muzaffarnagar, Pilibhit, Rampur, Shamli, Siddharthnagar and Sonbhadra the fresh and active cases have come down to zero.

The recovery rate in the state is 98.7 per cent. In the last 24 hours, 2,26,111 Covid tests were conducted in the state. So far, 7, 42, 65,099 Covid tests have been completed in the state.

Giving instructions to conduct the Covid vaccination work with full activeness, the chief minister said that vaccination was an important protection against infection. He was apprised in the meeting that vaccination was going on at a fast pace and so far 8.34 crore doses of the vaccine had been given, the highest vaccination in any state.

The chief minister directed officials to make statewide surveillance programme more effective in respect of dengue and other viral diseases. He said patients suspected with fever and other signs of infection should be identified and given proper counseling and adequate availability of beds and medicines should be maintained in hospitals. He said that in view of the infection, the affected districts like Firozabad, Agra, Kanpur Nagar and Mathura should be continuously monitored.