Coronavirus: People venture out on streets in Itanagar despite

Despite strict enforcement of lockdown in Arunachal Pradesh, the state capital on Tuesday witnessed a different scenario with people venturing out on the streets, a senior police officer said.

The situation improved after police and security forces intervened and asked people not to venture out of their homes unnecessarily, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Itanagar, SP Tumme Amo, said.

According to a state government notification issued on Sunday, due to the Coronavirus outbreak in the country, Arunachal Pradesh was supposed to be under lockdown till march 31 from Monday evening.

While public vehicles were off the roads, a handful of vehicles engaged in the transportation of essential items were seen plying in the state capital.

All the markets wore a deserted look here and other parts of the state.

Except for the shops dealing in essential commodities such as milk, grocery and medicines, all other commercial outlets were closed in the state capital. The state has not reported any COVID-19 case so far.

State Surveillance Officer (Integrated Disease Surveillance Program) Dr L Jampa informed that three other suspected samples have been sent to a laboratory in Assam and the test results are awaited.

The suspect patients have been placed under home quarantine, Jampa said.

A total of 21,898 people were screened so far in the state.

Streets in West Siang were deserted on Tuesday as the movement of people remained thin due to restriction imposed on the movement of people and public transport.

Meanwhile, the authorities of Rama Krishna Mission Hospital here, in a statement informed that the outpatient department (OPD) services of the hospital will remain closed from March 26 till further notice to prevent transmission of COVID-19 within the hospital premises.

However, the casualty and emergency services of the hospital would function normally, the statement said.