Lucknow, Dec 19 (IANS): With a sudden surge in Covid cases in Lucknow, the district administration has directed all government district hospitals and government aided medical education institutes to activate Covid wards from Sunday onwards.

Thirteen people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. The number of new Covid cases in the city in a day, crossed double digits for the first time in four-and-a-half months.

Thirty-three new Covid cases have been reported from across the state in the past 24 hours.

Following the spike in cases, district administration has also cancelled leaves of all medical and administrative staff.

"The Integrated Covid Command and Control Centre (ICCC) has been instructed to work round the clock. Further, the rapid response team and surveillance teams will be doubled and deployed for contact tracing," said Abhishek Prakash, Lucknow district magistrate.

The areas from where most cases have been reported will be kept in the 'red zone' and houses of patients will be turned into mini containment zones. Sanitation will also be increased in the city.

Meanwhile, of the 13 new patients, two had recently travelled to other states of the country.

Three of the cases are from the LDA Colony on Kanpur Road, two each from Rahim Nagar, Indira Nagar and Mahanagar, and one each from New Hyderabad, Rajajipuram and Krishi Bhawan Road.

The three cases from LDA Colony are in the same family. A female member of the family had tested positive on October 12 after she returned from Punjab where she had gone to attend a wedding. Health officials have tested the entire family and three more members have contracted the infection.

Similarly, a family member of a person, who had tested Covid positive earlier, was found to be infected in New Hyderabad.

Among other cases, a man who recently travelled to Jammu, and another who visited Haryana tested positive.

Further, five others found infected had got themselves tested because they were planning to visit other states.

The two other patients got themselves tested after experiencing mild influenza-like symptoms.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Manoj Agarwal said that all the patients are in home isolation.

"Patients are being monitored through Integrated Covid Command and Control Centre (ICCC) and their samples have been sent for genome sequencing to KGMU," he added.