AGARTALA: Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb in a Facebook post late Tuesday night said the lockdown, inspired by the 'Janata curfew' held on March 22, would begin from 5 am on Sunday and end at 5 am the next day. He, however, said that his government was not planning to extend the lockdown.

"The way we all stayed at home on March 22 during the Janata curfew announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the same way we would stay at home from 5 am on Sunday to next day 5 am," Deb wrote on the social networking site. "Tripura is in stage 1 of the COVID-19 outbreak and we need to be prepared for stage 2 and 3. We have to be careful," he added.

Only emergency services will be operational on during the complete lockdown period, he said. The chief minister said the 'Epidemic Act' will be imposed in the state on Sunday and asked people to adhere to the lockdown norms.

State Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath, who is also the cabinet spokesperson, on Tuesday said though Tripura is in a "good position", the state government did not want to take risks. "The state government was compelled to announce a lockdown on July 5 for the sake of 37 lakh people of the state," he said.

Nath said the rate of recovery of COVID-19 patients in the state has climbed to 80.25 per cent. As of Tuesday, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state stood at 1,394, officials said. The state has 308 active cases, while 1,086 patients have recovered from the disease, they added. (Inputs from PTI)