Union Minister of State Development (Independent Charge) of northeastern region Jitendra Singh today, on July 2, stated that there is a progressive decline in the daily cases of COVID19 in all eight northeastern states except Meghalaya.

The positivity rate in the northeastern region has decreased from 3.96 per cent as of June 30 to 2.94 per cent on July 2, informed Singh.

The minister highlighted that the northeastern states were largely affected by the second wave of the COVID pandemic. “What is worrisome is that in the last wave of the pandemic, Northeast had remained relatively unaffected by COVID compared to many other States and some States like Sikkim did not have a single corona positive case throughout the lockdown period. But in contrast this year, North Eastern States have also witnessed a significant rise in corona positive cases,” he said in the COVID review meeting.

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Singh further added that he is getting updates from all the eight northeastern states about the prevalence of COVID and necessary health facilities and infrastructure. It was also highlighted that all the north eastern states have sufficient bed capacities and oxygen stock.

Singh stressed that decline in active cases must be followed with greater thrust on vaccination and strict observance of COVID protocol. Taking note of the vaccine supply issues of Nagaland and Manipur, the minister directed the health officials to address the same on an urgent basis.

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As per the data available on covid19india.org (an independent network of volunteers collecting COVID data), of all the eight northeastern states, yesterday on July 2, Assam reported the highest number of daily new COVID19 cases (2,453). It is followed by Manipur (656), Meghalaya (485), Tripura (409), Arunachal (404), Mizoram (278), Sikkim (111), and Nagaland (77).

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Meanwhile, as per the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, over 44,000 daily new coronavirus infections were reported across the country and 738 people lost their lives to the virus yesterday.