The Manipur government has imposed a strict 10-day lockdown in the state, starting 18 July. This came after Manipur reported its highest single-day surge over the past few days as the state recorded 1,104 fresh Covid-19 cases over a span of 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of active and positive cases to 8,210 and 80,521 respectively. The wide prevalence of the Delta variant of Covid-19 in Manipur has necessitated that the state takes stringent measures to break the chain of transmission. According to the Manipur Health Department as many as 17 people succumbed to the virus across different hospitals on Thursday even while a total of 70,985 patients have recovered from the disease. With more people getting cured of the disease, the state’s COVID recovery rate has improved. Only essential services related to water and power supply, telecom, internet, air travel and agricultural activities will function as usual.
The rising Covid graph in the North Eastern states has been a cause of worry for the Centre as cases in the rest of the country have come down and unlocking has begun. Only Kerala is now battling the Zica virus. Among the North Eastern states, cases in Tripura have been on the rise. Moreover, data from states like Mizoram and Nagaland are difficult to come by even as testing and vaccination hesitancy both remain a challenge. This time Covid has taken a toll even in distant villages where healthcare infrastructure is at its worst and communications bottlenecks abound. Reasons for the virus entering the villages this time is due largely to movement of people from villages to the urban centres and then carrying back the virus with them. Inter-district movement can only be curtailed up to a point. There are traders and truck drivers who have to bring essential goods to the villages. With strict testing facilities remaining largely absent the virus gains entry into these villages and what happens thereafter remains unreported. Also, reasons for the high mortality rates in most of these states is because of delayed admission to hospitals. Mizoram and Manipur have also had large influx of refugees from Myanmar where the Covid situation is unreported but which the refugees claim is bad. The army which has taken control of the country does not allow anything to be reported. North East India has to remain on high alert.
