Manipur government on Wednesday announced a strict 7-day lockdown from Friday to tackle the spike in COVID-19 cases in the state.
Speaking to newspersons at Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Manipur CM N. Biren Singh said a strict 7 days lockdown will be imposed in the state starting from 2 pm of July 23.
“The cabinet meeting held today has decided to impose a strict curfew-like lockdown in the state, starting from 2 pm of July 23,” announced Biren, adding that, the lockdown may be further extended for another 7 days beyond July 29 after monitoring the situation in the first 7 days.
The announcement came a day after Thoubal district imposed a total lockdown, from Tuesday, given the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and containment zones in the district.
Biren said only essential services like media, healthcare officials, security personnel, etc. will be allowed during the total shutdown.
“There shall be a complete curfew in the entire state until further orders till July 29. Only the personnel of essential services permitted by the deputy commissioner of the respective district will be allowed,” said Biren.
Biren urged people of the state to follow the guidelines issued by authorities seriously.
“Strict penalties will be levied for the non-observance of quarantine rules, non-maintenance of social distancing, not wearing a face mask in public/workplaces, etc. I urge the people of the state to follow the lockdown norms strictly,” said Biren.
Manipur has recorded a total of 2,060 positive cases out of this 1,418 have been fully recovered and discharged from different COVID Care centers reducing the number of active cases to 642 only. So far, there is no report of any death due to COVID-19 from any part of Manipur.
