Total lockdown not necessary in Nagaland, says health official

Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 5 (EMN): Nagaland Health officials on Sunday said that total lockdown in the state is not necessary as long as the public learn to live with the novel coronavirus and adhere to safety measures.

“Total lockdown may depend on the demand of situation. If we look at the present situation in the state, all the positive cases are within the quarantine centres and are from the returnees. There is no community spread till today in the state,” said Dr. Vizolie Z Suokhrie, Principal Director for Health and Family Welfare.

“Coronavirus has come to stay and people have to learn to live with it. There is no need to go for total lockdown right now. Since positive cases are imported, the department is not recommending for total lockdown,” he said.

Despite not being under total lockdown, the state is maintaining ‘certain discipline’ and ‘people are insisting on following them’.

“If we are able to maintain discipline, total lockdown is not necessary,” he added.

According to Suokhrie, problem will arise when public do not maintain safety protocols like wearing face masks in public places, maintain social distance, hand and cough hygiene, etc.

If people learn to live a new lifestyle maintaining these safety protocols, total lockdown may not be necessary at all, he said.

“But if we are not able to do that, then total lockdown may be required even if we don’t want. At the moment, the situation in the state is very clear as those positive cases are coming out from the quarantine centres. Few frontline workers have been tested positive but we were able to contain them immediately,” he said.