The decision to implement total lockdown and curfew was taken during an emergency State Cabinet Meeting held this late evening at CM Secretariat Imphal. The meeting discussed the prevailing situation of COVID-19 in the State and decided to enforce total lockdown as a preventive measure.
Later briefing the media persons at Imphal, Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh said that the opinion of health experts who are members of the State Consultative Committee on COVID-19 were taken before the decision to enforce lockdown was finalized.
Considering the outbreak of COVID-19 mainly in the Thoubal area, where people who do not have travel histories were confirmed positive, the Cabinet meeting decided to enforce the lockdown from 2 pm tomorrow for 14 days. The case confirmed in the Thoubal district area is suspected of local transmission.
He said, the curfew to be implemented from tomorrow will be different from the earlier one. The State government will enforce the curfew strictly and fines will be levied on violation of social distancing norms, not wearing masks, spitting in public places and coming out in the public places and mass gathering.
Shri Biren said, the cabinet meeting also decided to recruit 100 doctors, 90 nurses and other support staff on the daily wages system immediately as part of preventive measure and healthcare improvement. Apart from 1,289 beds available for COVID-19 patients in different hospitals in the State, the government is going to inaugurate around 500 bedded COVID Care Centres in some districts.