Nagaland announces ‘Unlock 1’ from July 1 by easing lockdown restrictions

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 28 (EMN): Following decrease in Covid-19 cases after one-and-a-half months of lockdown, the government of Nagaland on Monday announced “Unlock 1” from July 1 to the 10th by easing restrictions across the state.

The state government’s spokesperson on Covid-19, Neiba Kronu, said at a press conference held at Nagaland Civil Secretariat Kohima that the decision to initiate what it termed “Way forward to Unlock 1” was taken by the High Powered Committee (HPC) during a virtual meeting.

It came two days before the existing lockdown, which was the fourth extension since the restrictions were announced on May 14, expires (June 30).

Kronu, who is also the minister for Planning and Coordination, Land Revenue and Parliamentary Affairs, informed that prior to the HPC meeting, the state-level war room headed by the chief secretary had a virtual meeting with all the district tasks forces (DTFs) on June 26 to assess the situation and subsequently took the decision to ease restrictions based on their inputs.

He stated that the HPC came to the conclusion that stringent lockdown might not do much good to the people but ‘following Covid-appropriate behaviour is necessary’.

He stressed that on the way forward to unlock, vaccination and Covid test have to be accelerated.

He pointed out that the HPC had come out with the new arrangement “On way forward to unlock” for 10 days (July 1-10) with more relaxations including opening of shops on a rotational basis.

The curfew will be relaxed from the existing 4 pm to 5 am to 7 pm to 4 am starting from July 1 and government offices will start operating with 50% attendance of employees. The minister also informed that 50 people would be allowed to attend weddings, funerals and church gatherings.

Kronu went on to inform that the existing guidelines would be in place until a new order is issued and that the state is targeting to achieve 5% positivity rate saying ‘time will tell but we are targeting that’.

Meanwhile, the principal secretary of Home, Abhijit Sinha, informed that respective district tasks forces (DTFs) would be allowed to take decision to impose stricter restrictions in their jurisdictions base on local situations.

State Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) Dr. Nyanthung Kikon also informed that the state’s current Covid positivity rate in the past week was 9% while overall positivity in 2021 was 12.8%. He added that the results of samples sent for genome sequencing is still awaited.