Manipur extends lockdown till June 30 amid rising corona cases

Guwahati: Amid a rising number of coronavirus cases, the Manipur Government has decided to extend the coronavirus-triggered lockdown till June 30.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who announced this in front of media, said that small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), agriculture, and horticulture-related activities and work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have been exempted from the prevailing lockdown restrictions.

At the same time, the Government has made 14-days institutional quarantine mandatory for citizens returning from other states. Singh told media that this decision has been taken because of the high number of Covid-19 cases that have been detected in Manipur in the aftermath of the return of citizens who were struck in other states amid the nationwide lockdown.

Reacting to reports of an attack on a special train that was bringing back stranded Manipuris from Goa, Biren said that the entire nation cannot be blamed for the acts of a few. Singh further added that in the aftermath of the attack, he had appealed Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and said that he was "glad" because of their intervention. Meanwhile, Biren has lauded some citizens of Bihar for distributing food materials to Northeast Indian citizens returning on a special train.

On Sunday, 5 more cases of the virus were detected in Manipur, taking the tally of cases to 71, On the same day, however, 4 persons were released after recovery. "Today four female patients were discharged from RIMS (2) and JNIMS (2) after they were found Covid-19 negative on two consecutive tests," says Dr Khoirom Sasheekumar Mangang, Additional Director and spokesperson of the health department.

"Two of them are from Thoubal district and the remaining are from Churachandpur and Kamjong districts." The spokesperson said that they will now proceed for home quarantine for a period of 14 days.

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