Five states in Northeast completely COVID-19 free: DoNER Minister

Five out of the eight Northeastern states are completely coronavirus-free and the remaining three have not added any new COVID-19 positive case in the last few days. The five states had earlier reported COVID positive cases.

New Delhi: In a positive development as far as India’s fight against coronavirus pandemic is concerned, five Northeastern states are COVID-19 free while the other three states have not added any new Corona positive case in the last few days, said Union Minister for Development of Northeastern Region (DoNER), Dr Jitendra Singh, on Monday.

States like Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura are corona free, while 3 other states of Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram had 8, 11 and 1 Corona positive cases respectively.

The five states had earlier reported COVID positive cases.

DoNER Minister Dr Singh had a review meeting with senior officials from North Eastern Council (NEC) as well representatives of different government bodies and PSUs through a video conferencing.

Dr Singh said that in the last six years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Northeast has emerged as a model of developmental transformation and in the wake of the present COVID crisis, it has emerged as a model of effective, diligent and disciplined health management.

Dr Singh also said that his ministry has received several proposals from the Northeastern states for new health projects.

“Proposals received and under consideration from the different Northeastern States like Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur for new health-related projects devoted to the management of infections and Corona care, critical care and upgraded healthcare,” said Dr Singh.

He said that these projects will be dealt with priority. In addition, he informed that the Ministry of DoNER had placed Rs 25 crore at the disposal of Northeastern states in the initial stage itself, much before the lockdown, as gap-funding for corona related activities.

During the meeting, Dr Singh also received an update about various economic activities in the recent days in the exempted areas, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines, which primarily included the Bamboo related activities.