Total lockdown across Tripura will begin from 5 am of Monday (July 27) till 5 am of Thursday (July 30).
Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb announced the lockdown while addressing the people in a video message on Saturday evening.
He said the state government has decided to impose total lockdown in order to break the chain of COVID19 transmission. The state recently saw a sharp increase in the positive cases.
The order reads, “It has come to the notice of the State Government that there is spread of COVID-19 occurring in different parts of the state which has posed a major threat to public health, hygiene and safety of the people. It is also felt that unless stringent measures are put in place to contain the spread of the pandemic, there is chance of large scale spread of COVID-19 in the population which is likely to cause loss of human lives.”
“I believe, this antigen test drive and the lockdown will help defeat the novel coronavirus,” the Chief Minister said.
“There are around 1500 active positive cases across the state now. The number of positive cases has increased when our relatives, near and dear ones started returning from other states”, he said while expressing his gratitude to the people for extending their spontaneous supports and cooperation to the government in the fight against COVID19 pandemic.
“The state is conducting 30000 tests per million population while the fatality rate stands at 0.29 percent. We have 86 ventilators and around 2000 beds in various covid care centres. We also have 72000 PPE kits. Besides, all the healthcare institutions including PHCs, CHCs and district hospitals are working round the clock with adequate medical essentials,” he said.
“As of now, 11 COVID19 patients have died in the state so far. My condolences are with the bereaved families. As announced earlier, the state government will provide Rs. 6 lakh from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and Rs. 4 lakh from SDRF to the deceased’s families each. An instruction has been passed so that process is done at the earliest,” the Chief Minister said.
The Chief Minister said that the three-day lockdown would give a clear picture on the situation we are going to experience in the next three months. He appealed to all for not to go outside home during the lockdown period unless there is any emergency.
Meanwhile, the state government will launch door-to-door survey on Monday. In this context, the Chief Minister said, “if the survey team visits your home and finds you absent then the team will not be able to check if you are infected.”
Referring to rapid antigen test drive, the Chief Minister has announced that one-time financial assistance of Rs. 1000 would be given to all members of antigen test teams including Anganwadi and Health staff each in view of the COVID19 lockdown. The assistance would be adjusted with their salaries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already announced free ration till November. Besides, the state government would provide free ration to 50000 poor APL families for one month. Meanwhile, the state government had provided one-month free ration to such families earlier too.
The Chief Minister has appealed everyone to maintain the lockdown and follow the government guidelines to break the chain of COVID19 transmission chain.
