<span style="color: #222222;">In Manipur, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh has said that the COVID-19 situation in the past few days in the state is alarming and total lockdown would be imposed in those badly affected areas to prevent further spread.<br />''  <br />'' Speaking to the media persons in Imphal today, Mr Singh said that the lockdown had slowed down spread of the disease up to a large extent but it had also affected the economy as well.<br />'' <br />'' As such, the strict compliance of SOPs have been adopted as the only effective measure to restrict the positivity rate.<br />'' <br />'' Considering the alarming situation in the past few days, the State Government has identified the areas and the pockets which are severely affected.<br />'' <br />'' Total lockdown would be imposed in these areas to prevent further spread.<br />'' <br />'' Meanwhile, one person expired due to COVID-19 positive in the past twenty four hours taking the total fatality due to the pandemic in the State to 117.<br />'' <br />'' On the other hand, 315 persons including 30 personnel from the Central Armed Police Force were confirmed as new COVID-19 positive cases in the past 24 hours in Manipur making the total count of positive cases so far to 15,778.<br />'' <br />'' Among the new positive cases, 268 locals do not have travel history and are suspected to be infected with the virus through local transmission.<br />'' <br />'' 172 were discharged in the past 24 hours in the state and the recovery rate has further decreased to 75.50 per cent.<br />'' <br />'' So far, Manipur has recorded total recovered and discharged cases of 11,913 while the number of active cases is 3,748.<br />'' <br />'' </span><br />