Seven-day total lockdown in Nagaland from May 14

The Nagaland government on Tuesday decided to clamp total lockdown in the state for seven days from May 14 amid the surge in COVID-19 cases.

State government spokesperson on COVID-19 and Minister Neiba Kronu said that the High Powered Committee (HPC) on COVID-19 decided to impose a state-wide total lockdown for one week starting from 6 pm on May 14 till May 21.

The decision was taken during the HPC meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Tuesday, he said.

The HPC decided that the week-long total lockdown will be enforced with a view to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission, said Kronu.

He also said that existing restrictions will continue till total lockdown is in place while New SOPs would also be issued.

However, Kronu said that essential services including agricultural activities will be exempted from the purview of the lockdown.

Nagaland government on May 3 announced containment zones in some areas of the state capital Kohima and commercial hub Dimapur for seven days from 7 pm of May 5 following the surge in COVID-19 cases, which will end at 7 pm on Wednesday.

However, there has not been any respite in the positivity rate as there has been an increase of 1,279 COVID-19 cases in five days. As of May 5, the state had 15,004 positive cases with 2,038 active cases but the positive cases have gone up to 16,283 and active cases to 2,884 till May 10.

In the five days, 32 COVID-19 positive patients also died increasing the death toll in the state from 118 on May 5 to 150 on May 10.

State government departments will continue to function with a core team formed by the Heads of Department, he said.

Construction activities may be permitted by contractors or firms adhering to all the SOPs for the workers, the HPC decided.

During the total lockdown period, the HPC decided that the Health and Family Welfare department would pursue aggressive testing by utilising the testing capacity of the COVID-19 labs, Kronu added.