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Our Correspondent
Imphal, July 16 (EMN): Manipur government has announced a ten-day total curfew from July 18 considering the surging cases of the delta variant in the state and the necessity for stringent measures to break the chain of transmission.
The state chief minister N Biren Singh wrote on Facebook, 'In view of the alarming Covid situation in the state, there will be a strict curfew from July 18 to 27th.
Stating all institutions will remain closed except for essential services such as medical services, water supply, power supply, telecom/internet services, air travel and agricultural activities, he said, "Further, only the people coming out for vaccination and testing will be permitted to venture out during this curfew. State forces along with CRPF will be deployed for strict enforcement of the curfew".
The principal secretary of Health, V Vumlunmang had also issued a public notice on this regard on Thursday.
"Only essential activities related to vaccination, Covid testing, medical services, water supply, power supply, telecom/internet services, air travel and agricultural activities would be allowed. Formal orders will be issued separately", the public notice said. The notice also requested the public to cooperate in tackling Covid-19.
Later on Friday afternoon, the state chief secretary Dr. Rajesh Kumar, who is also the chairman of the state executive committee of State Disaster Management Authority issued an order directing the deputy commissioners to issue necessary orders for curfew and to the superintendents of police to take necessary action in implementing the orders strictly.
The order stated that only essential and key departments of the government will continue to function with minimal staff as considered by the administrative secretary/head, with an emphasis on e-office/work from home.
In another order issued by the chief secretary, it excluded the activities relating to print and electronic media from the purview of the total curfew.
Even though the order failed to mention media among the services excluded from the purview of the total curfew, another order issued by the chief secretary Dr. Rajesh Kumar in the evening allowed "activities relating to print and electronic media".
Manipur recorded more than 1000 new cases for the third consecutive day with the state Health department daily bulletin reporting 1128 new Covid-19 cases out of 7184 samples tested on Friday. As a result, the state's Covid tally reached 82,688 with active cases of 9,033.
The fresh cases were detected from 13 districts in the state and maximum numbers of cases were reported from Imphal East (289), Imphal West (279) and Churachandpur (125) districts.
Moreover, the state recorded 10 Covid fatalities in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s death toll to 1350, official sources said. Four deaths were reported in Imphal West and Imphal East and one each in Jiribam and Kangpokpi districts.
On the other hand, with 643 new recoveries in the last 24 hours, the total number of recovered Covid-19 cases in Manipur reached 72,305, it added. Thus, the recovery rate stands at 87.44 percent.
Manipur has administered 83,206 doses of Covid vaccines including 8,76,349 first and 1,068,57 second doses to the residents.
According to official report, till date a total of 3,90,942 first doses (second dose 1149) of Covid vaccine were given to people between 18-44 years and 2,27,519 first doses (second dose 17,018) to people between 45-59 years besides 1,16,841 first doses (second dose 8586) to people above 60 years.
Meanwhile, Manipur police on Friday detained 166 persons across the state for violating health protocols and released them after giving warning. An amount of INR 60,650 was also collected as fine.