Mizoram announces Rs 20 lakh ex-gratia for local volunteers who die of COVID-19

Aizawl, April 7: Mizoram government has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 20 lakh each for local volunteers for COVID-19 who die due to the virus infection, an official statement said today.

This was approved by a meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by chief minister Zoramthanga on Tuesday afternoon.

Following the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic last year, Mizoram government had set up Village Level Local Task Forces (VLTF) in villages and Local Level Task Forces in city and towns to fight against the spread of COVID-19. These voluntary task forces played important roles during the peak of the COVID-19 spread and became a great help to the state government in curtailing the spread of COVID-19.

The announcement comes at a time when Mizoram is on the verge of being hit by the second wave of COVID-19.

Mizoram today reported eight new cases of COVID-19, taking the state’s tally to 4,508.

While six cases were reported from Aizawl district, two were reported from Kolasib district.

The eight new patients included two kids, aged three and aged 11. The two were infected from contact with positive persons.

Four of the new patients returned from outside Mizoram while the other four do not have travel history.

Among the new patients are a family of three whose head of family is a hotel manager in Aizawl. The hotel is currently quarantined.

The eight new cases were detected from 1,149 samples tested on Tuesday.

Mizoram currently has 50 active cases, 39 in Aizawl, six in Kolasib, three in Hnahthial and two in Champhai.

While 4,447 have recovered from the disease, 11 have succumbed to it.