Nagaland Government Lifts COVID-19 Restrictions

In view of the weekly COVID test positivity remaining below two per cent for the past one month in Nagaland and the advisory issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the state government has announced that all COVID-19 restrictions stand withdrawn from Friday. There will be no restriction on the number of people who can attend any event, Nagaland Chief Secretary J Alam said. The COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for travellers or tourists entering Nagaland will also stand withdrawn, he said. The curbs were lifted two years after they were imposed for preventing the spread of coronavirus. However, people have been advised to continue adhering to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour like wearing of face masks in public places, following hand hygiene and maintaining physical distancing at all times, he said. Nagaland had first detected the COVID-19 infection among three Chennai returnees on May 25, 2020. Those above 12 years of age have been advised to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and people whose precautionary dose is due, have been asked to get themselves vaccinated at the earliest, a circular said. 

In another circular, the state government said the average number of daily new hospital admissions due to coronavirus has remained below five for the last three weeks. The number of active cases has also declined steeply and remained only at 15 as on March 31, it said. In view of the developments, the state government has decided that there will not be any further extension of the order imposing restrictions for containment of COVID-19 in the state under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 beyond March 31, the circular issued by Home Commissioner Abhijit Sinha said. However, the Health and Family Welfare Department will continue focusing on five-fold strategy of Test-Tract-Treat-Vaccination and adherence to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, and will closely monitor the situation and shall take prompt and necessary action at the local level, whenever any upsurge of cases is noticed in any part of the state, Sinha said. Nagaland has detected a total of 35,476 COVID-19 cases, of which 33,217 people have recovered, 759 have died, and 1,484 patients have migrated to other states. In view of the continuous dip in coronavirus cases, the Union Home Ministry had decided to end all COVID-19 containment measures from March 31. The Central Government had on March 24, 2020 issued for the first time orders and guidelines, under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, for the containment of COVID-19 in the country which were modified from time to time. 

PTI INPUTS