Manipur loses zero Coronavirus death status as 4 die in 48 hours

Imphal, July 30:  Manipur, which had recorded no Covid-19-related death until Tuesday, has now seen four people succumb to the disease in the past 48 hours, officials said on Thursday.

With the continuing rise in cases, the state government has extended the 7-day complete lockdown and curfew, that was supposed to end on Thursday, for one more week from Friday.

State Health and Family Welfare Department's Additional Director Khoirom Sasheekumar Mangang said that three Covid-19 patients, aged 47, 48 and 60 years old, died on Thursday. "All the three men had co-morbid health conditions and were recently infected," the official said.

The three fatalities come a day after the state registered its first Covid-19 death with a 56-year-old patient succumbing on Wednesday. The man was also suffering from type-2 diabetess and hypertension.

The state has, so far, seen 2,505 cases, out of which 829 are active while 1,672 people recovered from the disease with a recovery rate of around 67 per cent.

Extending the lockdown, Chief Secretary J. Suresh Baby, in a notification, said: "The lockdown has been extended till August 6 as new cases of Covid-19 infection continues to be detected among the people who have no history of travel outside the state."

With the return of thousands of natives from different parts of the country, specially the southern region, Manipur and the seven other northeastern states witnessed a rapid rise in cases.

A 23-year-old woman, who had returned to the state from the UK in March, became the first coronavirus case in the entire northeast. She was also the first Covid-19 patient to recover in the region.