Nagaland decides to extend lockdown till August 31

The Nagaland government on Thursday decided to extend the ongoing lockdown measures in the state by a month till August 31 in view of the spurt in Covid cases, a senior minister said.

It also decided to notify single Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all the districts to contain spread of the virus.

The decision to this effect was taken during a meeting of the high powered committee headed by Chief Minister Neiphie Rio on coronavirus situation, Minister for Planning and Coordination, Neiba Kronu, who is also the government spokesperson on COVID-19 told PTI here.

On June 11, the HPC, with Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton as co-convener, had extended the lockdown till July 31.

The HPC thoroughly deliberated on the existing lockdown measures and decided to further extend the shutdown by another month considering the increasing trend of COVID-19 positive cases in the state, he said.

Nagaland currently has 1561 positive cases, of whom 961 are active and 595 have recovered.

Five persons have died due to coronavirus in the state so far.

The SOP and guidelines on lockdown measures are being issued, however functioning of schools and colleges will be strictly restricted during the period, said Kronu.

The government spokesperson also said that the meeting reiterated empowerment of the respective District Task Force to take decision on imposition or extension of total lockdown as per the situational requirement of the district.

Presently, three districts Kohima, Dimapur and Mon, which have the highest number of active COVID-19 cases are under total lockdown.

Dimapur is the worst infected with 434 positive cases, the state capital Kohima has 316 and interior Mon district has 138 active cases.

Kohima imposed a 7-day total lockdown since July 25 and will end on Friday.

Dimapur promulgated the orders from July 26 and Mon extended from July 27, while their measures would end on August 2.

Image Credits: PTI