Itanagar, May 28: The Arunachal Pradesh government on Friday decided to extend the lockdown in seven districts till June 7 following a surge in COVID-19 cases, senior officials said.
The lockdown in the Itanagar capital region, Tawang, Lower Subansiri, Namsai, Upper Subansiri, Lohit, and Anjaw districts were to end on May 31. The decision was taken at the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) meeting, held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Pema Khandu, to assess the corona virus situation and review the preparedness of the state.
Taking to Twitter, the chief minister said, "Following deliberations, it was clear that Arunachal Pradesh is yet to come out of the danger zone and we must continue to take strict measures to contain the spread of the disease and save precious lives. "In greater public interest, we must all continue to take evidence and science-based decisions in tailoring our public health response."
The meeting also decided to identify one health facility in every assembly constituency for upgrading it with the necessary equipment, officials said. Steps are being taken to create 1,000 oxygen beds by July, besides upgrading the six 100 litres per minute (LPM) PSA plants in Ziro, Tawang, Tezu, Yingkiong, Seppa, and Aalo. The meeting agreed to make the 500 LPM Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plant functional at the Dedicated Covid Hospital (DCH) in Chimpu, near here, besides setting up 600 LPM plants in 19 hospitals and approved liquid medical oxygen (LMO) storage units at five strategic locations.
It was also decided to ramp up the number of oxygen beds at Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) at Naharlagun near here, and at DCH Chimpu, the officials said. Over three lakh people have been vaccinated in the northeastern state and there are plans to inoculate more than 1.5 lakh people in the next 30 days. It was also decided that massive testing, tracking, and treating would be vigorously taken up to curb the spread of the disease.
The state has enough stock of essential medicines, they said. At least 444 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, pushing the tally in the northeastern state to 25,820, a senior health department official said on Friday. The death toll rose to 109 after two more persons succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said.
