After assessing the situation in the State, the High Powered Committee (HPC) on Monday decided to roll out Unlock 1 from July 1 to 10.
Announcing this at a press briefing after a meeting at civil secretariat conference hall here on Monday, HPC spokesperson and planning & coordination, land revenue and parliamentary affairs minister Neiba Kronu said the committee decided to go for ‘Unlock 1’ as the way forward.
As Nagaland Post reported on Monday that the state government was likely to ease lockdown curbs in a phased manner, a senior official of the Health department had also pointed out that, considering the decline of active and severe cases including deaths in the State, lockdown could be gradually lifted partially or further tightened.
The official said the final decision will be taken only after assessing the ground situation even though the positivity rate was still above 5% threshold set by the Centre.
Kronu said that the HPC meeting was held virtually since chief minister Neiphiu Rio was in Delhi, adding that the State Level War Room headed by chief secretary J Alam had conducted video conferencing with all district task forces (DTFs) on June 26, whose inputs were discussed at the HPC meeting too.
Kronu said the HPC meeting was of the opinion that imposing stringent lockdown for too long a period might not help. However, to avoid lockdown in future, he stressed that adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour was important even as testing and vaccination should go in full swing.
Pointing out that Unlock 1 would be an observation period for taking further decision, the spokesperson said HPC also decided to relax timings for opening of shops, while curfew would be imposed from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Further, he said 50% of State government employees would have to attend office, while gathering of up to 50 individuals would be allowed in churches, weddings and funerals.
Principal secretary, home, Abhijit Sinha, who too was present, said educational institutions would remain closed while the existing SOP would remain the same till July 10 for railway passengers and further relaxations or modifications would be decided again before July 10. Sinha DTFs were empowered to take measures for additional stricter measures based on local situation.
When asked about the positivity status of the State, nodal officer (ISDP), Dr Nyanthung Kikon said the State’s positivity rate this year till June was 12.8% while state positivity rate last week (June 19-25) stood at 9%.