Uttar Pradesh government will on Saturday end the night curfew amid a decline in COVID-19 cases. The night curfew hours were cut short recently. The 10 pm-6 am curfew was cut short to 11 pm to 5 am last week. 

A statement shared by news agency ANI on Saturday said that the night curfew will be lifted from Saturday night. 

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The fresh restrictions were brought ahead of the start of the seven-phased polls in the state amid concerns that poll campaigning may lead to a surge in cases.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said there will be no night curfew from February 19 onwards.

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The development comes just a day ahead of the third phase of the ongoing Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. The polling is scheduled to be held in seven phases in the state and the results will be declared on March 10.

Earlier, the Union Health Ministry confirmed that India’s COVID-19 tally climbed to 4,28,02,505 on Saturday with 22,270 more people testing positive for the viral disease, while the number of active cases came down to 2,53,739.

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The daily COVID-19 cases in the country have remained below one lakh for 13 consecutive days now.

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India’s COVID-19 tally climbed to 4,28,02,505 on Saturday with 22,270 more people testing positive for the viral disease, while the number of active cases came down to 2,53,739, according to Union health ministry data.