The Uttarakhand government has cancelled weekend lockdown for this week due to the festival of Raksha Bandhan.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat made the announcement on Wednesday evening while talking to the media. The decision was taken to give some relief to the business community.

The Chief Minister said, “In view of the festival of Raksha Bandhan this week, there will be no lockdown in the four districts of the state on Saturday and Sunday. The decision has been taken in public interest so that the people and traders do not feel any inconvenience due to the lockdown on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.”

On July 17, the state government had decided to implement lockdown in four of its 13 districts including Dehradun, Nainital, Haridwar and US Nagar on weekends amid the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state.

“There will be complete lockdown in the four districts on Saturdays and Sundays barring essential services, industrial activities, agricultural activities, liquor shops, hotels and movement of goods on national and state highways,” stated a state government order.

Uttarakhand has so far reported 6,866 Covid-19 cases since the first case was reported on March 15. A total of 72 Covid-19 positive patients have died in Uttarakhand till now with 11 patients dying due to coronavirus, according to health officials. The rest of the patients died due to co-morbidities and other causes, added health officials.

The rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases in the state based on the last seven days now stands at 24.88 days, while the infection rate is 4.72%. The state has so far tested over 1.54 lakh samples of which results of over 6,000 samples are awaited.