ITANAGAR, 10 Jul: After high drama in the Itanagar capital region (ICR) which led to massive crowding in markets and traffic jams, it was finally decided that there won’t be a lockdown.
However, restrictions already in place will remain.
The night curfew in East Siang district will be enforced from 3 pm to 5 am for 10 days, till 22 July, while in the case of the ICR, it will be from 6 pm to 5 am for seven days, till 18 July.
Apart from these, all other directions issued on 30 June will remain in force in the ICR.
The decision was taken by the state health task force (SHTF) after reviewing the Covid-19 situation in the ICR and East Siang during a virtual meeting chaired by Principal Health Secretary Dr Sharat Chauhan. Health Secretary P Parthiban also attended it.
The DCs of the ICR and East Siang had recommended imposing lockdown in view of the rising Covid-19 positive cases in the ICR and East Siang.
“It was observed that the positivity rate and the bed occupancy ratio display a slight upward trend but are yet to reach the threshold limits warranting enhanced containment measures (complete lockdown) in the ICR,” the SHTF observed in the meeting.
“The weekly trend for positivity rate for the past three to four weeks has not shown an alarming surge, and the situation in the ICR needs to be observed for another fortnight for enforcing any enhanced containment measures,” it said.
In the case of East Siang, the SHTF observed that the positivity rate was above the threshold limit for the last week.
On opening of shops, the ICR DC has been advised to enforce closure and opening of shops and business establishments on either side of the highway from Naharlagun to Hollongi on alternate days during the week.
The SHTF suggested to the ICR administration to continue identifying micro-containment zones where the positivity rate is above 5 percent and undertake effective containment measures.
It advised the East Siang administration to increase the number of testing “in such manner that minimum 400 tests are conducted per lakh population per day.”
Both the ICR and the East Siang administrations have been advised to ensure strict implementation of Covid-appropriate behaviour among the people.
The ICR has a total of 820 active cases, with 131 cases detected on Saturday. East Siang has 299 active cases. On Saturday, it recorded 39 cases.
Both the ICR and East Siang recorded 9 percent positivity rate on Saturday.
