Himachal Extends Lockdown Till June 30

SHIMLA: Himachal Pradesh has decided to extend its lockdown till June 30. The BJP government led by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur in an order said that the lockdown will continue for another five weeks in all 12 districts of the state, a leading channel reported.

There are 214 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state and five have died, while 63 have recovered. The worst-affected districts Hamirpur has reported 63 virus cases while 21 people have tested positive for the infection in Solan till now.

Hamirpur has witnessed a spurt in cases after people in large numbers returned to the state from parts of the country recently.

Till now, only Maharashtra has spoken about extending lockdown.

During a video conference chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with chief ministers of different states, Thakur favoured extending the lockdown and urged the PM to make alternative arrangements for trading of the state's apples as operations at Delhi's Azadpur Mandi got affected by spurt in COVID-19 cases.

The CM had earlier said states should be allowed to resume economic activities particularly in the green zones.

Meanwhile, the PM lauded the state for effective implementation of Active Case Finding (ACF) campaign which has helped in screening the entire population of the state for any influenza like illness (ILI) symptoms. He urged all states to follow Himachal Pradesh in this initiative to combat the pandemic of novel coronavirus.

He said 70 lakh population of the state was checked for ILI under the ACF campaign. All ILI patients are being tested for COVID-19. Various teams of 16,000 officials, including ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, paramedics and police, visit door-to-door under the campaign.

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