Covid cases in Northeast declining but pockets of concern remain, says Centre

Assam, the most populous state in the region, saw a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in April soon after the assembly polls ended.

A day after Centre dispatched expert teams to six states including Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura in the north east, where Covid-19 cases were rising, the ministry of development of northeast region (DONER) said on Saturday that cases in all states in the region, except Meghalaya, were showing “progressive decline” in the test positivity rate (TPR).

In Assam, around 3,500-4,000 new cases and around 80-90 deaths were recorded daily in May on an average. The TPR also hovered between 8% and 9%. (PTI)

Jitendra Singh, minister of state for DONER chaired the meeting of senior officials of all eight NE states including Sikkim and noted that the second Covid wave took a huge toll in the region before showing an overall declining trend since early June even as some pockets continue to cause concern.

Assam, the most populous state in the region, saw a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in April soon after the assembly polls ended. Around 3,500-4,000 new cases and around 80-90 deaths were recorded daily in May on an average. The TPR also hovered between 8% and 9%.

However, containment measures such as curfew and ban on inter-district movement since mid-May helped in bringing down the numbers. On Saturday, the state recorded 2,375 new cases and 28 deaths with the TPR at 1.77%. Assam still has over 23,000 active cases and the situation in districts such as Biswanath and Goalpara, which are under total lockdown, is still not completely under control. The state government is expected to announce new restrictions this week to tackle the situation.

Till Sunday morning, 7.6 million Assam residents, including the 6.3 million who received the first dose and 1.3 million who received both the doses, were vaccinated. The plan to inoculate 300,000 persons daily and cover 9 million beneficiaries a month was hit by irregular supply of vaccines, said officials.

On Saturday, Tripura extended curfew for a week in nine different places including the capital city in view of a spike in Covid-19 cases. On Saturday, 409 fresh cases and two deaths were recorded in the state. In June, the state saw over 13,000 new infections and 153 deaths with the TPR oscillating between 2.66% and 5.84% in the period. Till Saturday, 2.596 million vaccine doses were administered among eligible beneficiaries in the state.

In Manipur, despite improvement in Covid 19 situation, the TPR remains high at 11.40%, much lower than 15.54% recorded a fortnight earlier on June 21.

Director (health services) Dr K Rajo Singh said unlike the past, Manipur was well prepared in terms of ICU beds, hospitals beds and Covid care centres besides oxygen supply.

”At present, three oxygen plants including one at JNIMS hospital in Imphal and two at Thoubal and Churachandpur district hospitals are functioning while nine others are in the process of development,” said Dr Rajo.

According to the Manipur health department, 330 people died due to Covid 19 in June which also saw active cases decline from 9,613 to 5,642 while 21,020 recoveries outpaced 18,544 new cases in June.

While Nagaland has begun the unlock process this week with a gradual decline in Covid-19 cases that shot up in the early part of May, the weekly positivity rate of 7% continues to be above the 5% benchmark, set for easing lockdown restrictions, that were first clamped in the state on May 14.

The improvement is evidenced in the 3,558 positive cases reported in June compared to the 7,704 recorded in May, as per the weekly Covid-19 bulletin. Majority of the cases in the state during the second wave were from urban and densely populated towns, particularly Dimapur, capital Kohima and Mokokchung. On July 2, Nagaland reported presence of 93 Delta variant cases among positive samples collected in April and May.

“As all are aware that the Delta variant is more infectious, the public are advised to continue to strictly adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour and vaccinate,” said Dr Neikhrielie Khimiao, principal director of the state health department.

With 69 positive cases reported on Saturday, the state’s total caseload now stands at 25,451 including 1,253 active cases and 485 deaths recorded till date. As of Saturday, the state has administered 529,849 vaccine doses to residents, including 67,090 who have taken both the doses.

In Arunachal Pradesh, 365 new cases were detected on Saturday, but thankfully no fresh deaths took place. The TPR for the state stood at 7.27% and there were 3,057 active cases at present. Till Saturday, 624,912 vaccine doses had been administered to residents including the 89,786, who had got both doses.

Meghalaya was registering over 500 new cases in the past few days and the daily TPR was hovering around 12% -13%. In all, there were 14,187 new cases during the month of June as compared to 18,883 in May. East Khasi Hills district continues to the worst affected among the 12 districts with 4,948 positive cases registered last month, while East Jaiñtia Hills district is at the bottom of the table with only 372 positive cases.

The vaccination drive has picked up pace in the state since mid-June after hesitancy in the initial months. Till Sunday morning, the state had administered over 733,000 doses.

Though Mizoram has administered over 600,000 vaccine doses (nearly half the state’s population of 1.1 million), the state is witnessing over 200 new cases daily in the past few days and the TPR on Saturday was recorded at 6.75%.