Corona cases in NE soar to 31, Assam to 26

The total number of cases in the northeastern region went up to 31, including 26 in Assam. Of the 31 positive cases in five northeastern states -- Assam (26), Manipur (2), Mizoram (1), Arunachal Pradesh (1) and Tripura (1) -- 27 took part in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month.

Guwahati:With a 45-year-old woman testing positive for coronavirus in Tripura on Monday night, the total number of cases in the northeastern region went up to 31, including 26 in Assam, officials said.

"First COVID-19 positive case detected in Tripura. The patient is from Udaipur (southern Tripura). Don't panic, we are taking proper care of the patient," Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said in a tweet on Monday night.

The health officials in Agartala are yet to confirm how the woman was infected.

"The woman has been tested positive for novel coronavirus on Monday at the government run Govind Ballabh Pant Medical College and Hospital," West Tripura District Magistrate and Collector Sandeep Mahatme said in a notification. He formed a five-member medical team to look after the patient.

Of the 31 positive cases in five northeastern states -- Assam (26), Manipur (2), Mizoram (1), Arunachal Pradesh (1) and Tripura (1) -- 27 took part in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month, while a Manipuri girl and a Mizoram man had tested positive last month after they returned from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, respectively.

Another 52-year-old trader in Assam's Kamrup (Metro) district has also been infected with coronavirus.

Besides, four persons from Assam and eight people from Tripura, who had attended the Jamaat congregation, have tested positive for Covid-19 and are under treatment in north India hospitals.

Earlier on Monday, there was good news from Manipur, where a 23-year-old woman, who had returned from the UK and became the first positive coronavirus case in the entire northeastern region, was declared completely free of the dreaded virus.

Manipur Health and Family Welfare Minister Langpoklakpam Jayantakumar Singh, in a Facebook post on Monday, said: "The much awaited news of our daughter Vimi's final COVID-19 test report has come out negative. Now she is completely free from the COVID-19 virus.

It's a huge achievement for the whole medical department in general and the doctors and staffs of JNIMS in particular. Let's continue to fight and endeavour more to ensure that our state is completely free from nCOVID-19 spread."

According to the health officials in Imphal, the woman is now undergoing treatment at Imphal's Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS), where she was admitted on March 23.

"Her family members' swab samples were tested negative earlier," the officials said.

Meanwhile, health officials in Aizawl on Monday said that a 50-year-old Mizo man was still at the ICU of the Zoram Medical College and Hospital in Aizawl. (IANS)