OUR REPORTER AIZAWL, APRIL 21
Mizoram Covid-19 count crossed a 5,000 mark on Wednesday as 90 more people, including 9 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, have tested positive for novel coronavirus, an official said.
With this the total number of Covid-19 cases now stands at 5,085, of which 497 are active, he said.
Of the 90 fresh cases, 69 cases were reported from Aizawl district, 16 from Lawngtlai district, 2 cases each from Mamit and Kolasib districts and one case was reported from Serchhip district, the official said.
He said that 9 CRPF jawans posted at Lengpui near Aizawl and 17 children aged between 4 months and 15 years were among the newly infected people. 31 patients have travel history, while the rest 59 have locally contracted the infection, he said.
Of the 90 patients, 29 have developed symptoms of Covid-19. As many as 4,576 people have recovered from the virus and the recovery rate is 89.86 per cent.
7 people were discharged on Wednesday.
At least 2,605 samples were tested on Tuesday and the infection rate for this particular day was 3.45 per cent while the overall infection rate is 1.82 per cent.
The state has so far conducted 2,80,243 sample tests for COVID-19.
According to state immunisation officer Dr. Lalzawmi, 1,36,235 people, including 32,773 senior citizens, have been inoculated till Tuesday, and 35,501 of them have received both doses of the COVID vaccine.
Meanwhile, a lockdown like restriction imposed in Aizawl and 10 other district headquarters entered the second day on Wednesday.
Sources said that the stringent guidelines were defied in some district headquarters as many people came out to the streets and activities functioned as it was in normal time.
Due to exempted activities like government offices and essential services, some vehicles and crowd were also seen in the state capital.
At least 106 people were fined for defying the guidelines in Aizawl on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the meeting of district-level task forces in Lawngtlai and Hnahthial districts decided to strictly enforce the guidelines from Wednesday night.
Commencing from Tuesday, the state government imposed a lockdown like restriction in all the district headquarters, including state capital Aizawl with tweak restrictions to break the chain of rising Covid-19 transmission and facilitate Covid-19 testing and contact tracing as the state grapples with the second wave of Covid-19.
The restriction will come into effect till 4 am of April 26.
Though the guidelines issued on mid-night of Monday use the word “lockdown,” it said that no residents in Aizawl municipal area and other district headquarters barring those exempted should step out of their homes without permission during the restriction period. However, movement of inter-village movement or intra-state movement is allowed with permission from concerned Village Level Task Force (VLTF) or Local Level Task Force (LLTF), the guidelines said. The guidelines said that vehicular movement is strictly restricted except for those exempted and the existing night curfew from 8:30 pm to 4 am in Aizawl and other district headquarters will be enforced strictly.
Apart from pharmacies, shops selling essential commodities, eateries, vegetables, meat, construction materials and spare parts in the state capital and district headquarters are allowed to open based on arrangement made by LLTF or VLTF, it said.
Besides, filing stations, motor workshops, cold storage and warehousing, data and call centres, carpentry workshops, steel fabrication workshops, bakeries, tailoring shops, weaving shops and other related shops are also allowed to be open with LLTF or VLTF’s arrangement, it said.
However, vegetables and other goods are not allowed to be sold in market places and volunteers of LLTF or VLTF will make arrangement to ensure that people get uninterrupted supply of vegetables, the guidelines said. According to the new guidelines, religious places, educational institutions, public parks, picnic spots, movie theatres, gymnasiums, community halls, restaurants, shopping complexes, malls and any other amusement resorts or places will be closed in all parts of the state.
However, school board examinations, all India level and other recruitment exams will continue as per schedule, it said.
The number of attendee at funerals and weddings is fixed at 30.
However, any public gathering such as a birthday party, anniversary celebration, games and sport activities, book release function and other related social gatherings are banned in all parts of the state.
(Source: The Mizoram Post Vol. 18 Issue 309 Aizawl Thursday 22 April 2021 http://www.themizorampost.net/page-view?date=22-04-2121&page_no=1)