TURA, July 22: The age gap of Covid victims is narrowing fast and turning in the direction of the youth as deaths among those in the age group of 20s and 30s is suddenly taking centre stage in the pandemic in Garo Hills. The number of infections is also spiraling out of control in Tura and the Covid ward in the main Tura civil hospital is fast filling up with patients.
With nine major localities of Tura turned into a containment zone after detection of a high number of positive cases, the district administration has decided to advance the weekend curfew in Tura town to 2 PM onwards of Friday.
The active cases have now crossed the thousand mark (1022) with 84 new detections during the day.
“Due to spike in covid positive cases, high positivity and hospitalization in Tura, Tomorrow (Friday) only ration shops, vegetables and mils selling stores in localities except Tura main market will be allowed from 8 AM to 1 PM. However, in other areas of the district the shops can remain open up to 4 PM,” announced Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh.
The weekend curfew in Tura, which along with the other districts usually began from 5 PM of Friday evening, has now been advanced to 2 PM to get people off the streets and into their homes at the earliest as one of the means to stop crowding in public places.
Passenger vehicles such as maxi cabs, buses to and fro Tura have been stopped, while other vehicles and autos will continue to follow the odd/even numbers for movement during the week.
In the last two days, there have been four deaths of covid victims, a majority being in the age group of early 20s and 30s. A 23 year girl hailing from Dobasipara area of Tura died from the disease on Wednesday while, on Thursday, another two victims- 23 year man from Gambagre (Damalgre) and a 35 year man from Ampanggre succumbed to the infection. Both the victims on Thursday had not taken the vaccination, once again signifying the importance of getting the jab to save lives.
The fourth victim of the infection was an 80 year old man who passed away in his home in Tura.