Lockdown till June 18 with more relaxations

June 10, 2021 36 Views No Comment

Correspondent KOHIMA, JUN 10 (NPN) : Current total Lockdown in Nagaland which was to end on June 11 has been further extended till June 18 by the state’s High Powered Committee (HPC) on Covid-19, which met Wednesday at the CM’s Residential Office.

Informing this, HPC spokesperson and minister planning, Neiba Kronu said the HPC headed by chief minister Neiphiu Rio took the decision after considering all inputs from the District Task Forces (DTFs) including the Health (H&FW) department.

It may be recalled that Nagaland Post, had earlier in its reports, indicated that the lockdown was most likely going to be extended as it brought a decline in new Covid cases and also fears that the situation could be uncontrollable if the virus spread to rural areas where health facilities were inadequate to meet the challenges.

The report also cited opinions of medical experts in the state, who felt that community transmission has already taken place and that the only way tostop the virus was vaccination and lockdown. Community transmission implies that the virus is now circulating in the community, and can infect people with no history of travel to or contact with affected people and areas. At this stage, it is theoretically possible for everyone in a community or country to catch the infection.

Also the newspaper reported that the Health department would be presenting its report to the HPC after holding consultations with representatives of all the districts. Except two districts, the rest of the district representatives– including Dimapur and Kohima, favoured continuation of the lockdown.

Though lockdown has been extended, yet some relaxations were decided by the HPC to allow shops/business establishments to open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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HPC also held a video conferencing with all DTFs, where health & family welfare (H&FW) department officials also presented an overall ground reports obtained from across the State and their observations.

During the video conferencing, Kronu said that the views of all were taken into consideration, where there was consensus to continue the lockdown with more relaxations. It may be recalled that the government had imposed a seven-day lockdown from May 14 to contain spread of Covid-19 and subsequently extended it till May 31, and then further up to June 11. This will be the third extension of the lockdown in the State.

Meanwhile, chief secretary J Alam has issued fresh Lockdown guidelines to remain in effect between June 12 and June 18. It was also learnt that the DTFs will issue orders for activities to be carried out in their respective districts as per the ground situation. In the order, Alam stated that the Covid situation in the State was reviewed where it was observed that there was a declining trend in the number of daily Covid-19 positive cases. He also informed that spread of Covid-19 cases in rural and peri-urban areas were also being continuously monitored.

Alam however noted that the number of active Covid-19 positive cases in the State was still a matter of concern. After taking into consideration views of the H&FW department and various DTFs, Alam said the State government was satisfied that the lockdown measures should be continued for some more time.

Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/lockdown-till-june-18-with-more-relaxations/234733.html