New Delhi/Lucknow: The Supreme Court on Tuesday remained the Allahabad high court's order directing a lockdown in 5 Uttar Pradesh cities-- Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Gorakhpur.A bench headed by Chief Justice Sharad A.

Bobde and consisting of Justices A.S.

Bopanna and V.

Ramasubramanian passed the stay order on a plea by the UP government versus Monday's high court order.

Soon after that, the Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday enforced a weekend curfew throughout the entire state and a night curfew on weekdays in all districts having more than 500 Covid-19 cases.While the night curfew in these districts will work from 8 pm to 7 am next day starting Tuesday, the weekend curfew will be implemented from Friday 8 pm to Monday 7 am, with all non-essential activities restricted.These decisions, aimed at breaking the transmission chain of the infection, were taken at a conference chaired by CM Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

The night curfew was enforced previously in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Noida (Gautam Buddh Nagar), Allahabad, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar districts and the Lucknow Municipal Corporation.