Agra, May 4 (IANS): The district authorities clarified early Monday there was no relief for the Taj city and lockdown restrictions will continue to be effectively enforced till May 17.

District magistrate P.N. Singh tweeted there was fear that the number of infected would rise further, therefore lockdown restrictions will remain in force, more strictly to be complied with. He said 7,234 samples had been taken so far for testing.

The number of COVID-19 cases reached 597 in Agra. So far 15 deaths have been reported, while 147 had recovered and returned home. Four quarantine centres have been shut down. The city now has 44 hot spots.

The neighbouring districts of Firozabad and Mathura are also red, as the number of Covid-19 infected has continued to go up.

The Agra district administration came under pressure as more than a thousand migrant labourers arrived from Ahmedabad in a special train.

After thermal screening at the Agra can't station, 595 locals were sent for quarantine, while the rest were sent to their districts in buses.

The District Administration, meanwhile, decided to constitute village and mohalla level monitoring committees. Those so far registered under the MGNREGA scheme would be mobilised to dig 21 lakh pits for sapling plantation and to clean up 178 community ponds before the monsoon rains.

Voicing dissatisfaction of the locals against the government medical facilities, a leading shoe exporter Pooran Dawar who has been daily providing thousands of food packets for distribution through the police network, in a communication to the state's political leadership, has highlighted some gaps that need to be immediately plugged. Dawar said closure of private hospitals and clinics has resulted in a lot of avoidable suffering and even deaths. Poor infrastructure and back up support in the dozens of quarantine centres where food and water bottles were thrown at the inmates in a disrespectful manner, have caused a lot of pain and anguish.