Four localities of the old city area in the state capital have been sealed while an alert has been sounded in the Lakhimpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP), Vikas Chandra Tripathi said that the sealed localities in Lucknow include Peer Baksh Masjid in Talkatora area, Rahmaniya Masjid in Qaiserbagh’s Phool Bagh, Mohammadi Masjid in Wazirganj’s Astbal Charbagh and a house in Saadatganj’s Yaseenganj,

The step was taken after seven Tablighi Jamaat members staying in these areas for the last two weeks, had tested positive.

He said three of these seven Jamaatis had come from Assam, and two each from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district and Jaipur (Rajasthan) to attend religious gatherings at mosques in Lucknow.

He said their travel history was being tracked.

The Kasaibada locality in Sadar was sealed earlier on Friday after it emerged as a Covid-19 hotspot with 12 Tablighi Jamaat members, who had been staying in a mosque there, testing positive.

Tripathi said the four new localities were sealed to ensure proper sanitisation and medical examination of people living there. He said the police personnel were assisting medical teams to collect samples of the suspected patients.

In Lakhimpur district, three more men tested positive for Coronavirus, taking the number of COVID-19 infected people in the district to four.

Following the development, an alert has been sounded in the district.

According to official sources, three men from Madhepura in Bihar, who returned from Delhi a few days back, were staying in various mosques in Dhaurahra area.

Lakhimpur District Magistrate Shailendra Kumar Singh said, “These men, along with some fellow villagers, were quarantined a few days back and their samples were sent to Lucknow. Out of the 12 samples sent, three tested positive.”

Earlier, a Lakhimpur trader, who visited Istanbul, had tested positive on March 19.

Meanwhile, amid a sudden surge in the number of Coronavirus cases, Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari has said that the lockdown might be increased if situation does not improve in the state. He added that a decision will be taken on the condition prevailing in the state.

Apart from Gautam Buddh Nagar and Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, four new districts in the state have been identified as hotspots of COVID-19 after Tablighi Jamaat members were found hiding inside mosques in different areas. The new hotspots are – Lucknow, Agra, Saharanpur and Ghaziabad.

Lucknow was tagged as hotspot after 16 new cases were reported two days back.

As of now, almost 50 per cent of total positive cases reported in Uttar Pradesh are those linked to Tablighi Jamaat. There are a total of 284 Coronavirus cases in the state and three deaths have been reported.

A total of 4,067 cases of Coronavirus have been reported in India so far. The death toll has jumped to 109 in the country. So far, 291 people have been cured from the disease.