Manipur asks armed forces to enhance Covid-19 preventive actions

Manipur government has asked the central security forces to further enhance Covid-19 preventive actions for their personnel after more than 500 personnel deployed in the insurgency-hit state were found positive.

Manipur chief secretary, Rajesh Kumar held a meeting with senior officers of the army, Assam Rifles, and the paramilitary forces on Wednesday, in which was emphasised that quarantine and Covid care facilities should be enhanced for their personnel in order to contain the spread of the dissease. "A Standard Operating Procedure has been agreed upon wherein it was decided that each force will designate a nodal officer to look into the issues related to Covid preventive actions. Also, no personnel will be sent out for duty until his Covid-19 tests are found negative," said an official in the Chief Minister's office.

Follow latest updates on the Covid-19 pandemic here

The source said a meeting was convened after it was found that some personnel, who returned from leave were deployed without tests or before the test report arrived. "This spread the virus," said the source.

According to the daily official Covid-19 bulletin, Manipur's positive cases increased to 3,217 on Thursday of which 536 were belonging to central armed forces. The state at present has 1,304 active cases of which 453 are central forces. Eight persons have died so far due to Covid-19 related issues.

"Some police personnel have also tested positive and we are tracing their contacts and carrying out tests very aggressively. So far 840 contacts have been traced and tested," the official said.