GUWAHATI: Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh are the three states in the Northeast which have not yet recorded a single case of local transmission of the COVID-19.
All the three states had detected the virus among returnees. According to official figures, all the cases in Nagaland (80), Mizoram (17) and Arunachal Pradesh (42) were reported from returnees.
Of the 132 cases in Manipur, 131 were reported from returnees. A nurse was the state’s only person who tested positive without any travel history in recent times. Assam too recorded over 98% of the cases from returnees.
Till 5 pm of Friday, Assam recorded a total of 2,153 cases. Three days ago, the state’s Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said the number of “Assam cases” was 24. What he essentially meant was that the rest of the cases were detected among returnees.
Tripura has a total of 644 cases, 162 of them reported from two battalion headquarters of the Border Security Force. The 162 people included 135 personnel, 26 family members, and a mess worker. Some of the personnel and their family members had arrived from outside in February and March.
Meghalaya has 33 cases so far. More than half of the patients are returnees. A doctor was the state’s first case and he has since expired.
Given the spike in the number of cases, all states in the region have made it mandatory for the returnees to go for 14-day institutional quarantine. There are aberrations though.
Officials in Nagaland had sent returnees to two different districts without waiting for the results of swab tests. When the results came, two persons were found to be infected with the virus.