On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a virtual meeting with the Chief Ministers of the eight northeastern states. The meeting is conducted to discuss the COVID 19 situation in the regions.
Three out of every five districts that reported a test positivity rate of over 10 percent in the past week to belong from the northeast.
Data traced by the Union Health Ministry portrayed that among 58 districts that reported a positivity rate of more than 10 percent from July 5 to July 11, 37 are from the northeast region of the country.
However, the absolute number in the northeast is less as compared to the other large states. The overall weekly positivity in India was around 2.21 percent as of Sunday.
As per reports, the Health Ministry sent individual letters to the Northeastern states underlining its concerns on July 6. Following which a video conference took place among officials involving Union Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and union Home Secretary AK Bhalla. During the video conference, the officials directed the states to ramp up testing with a high proportion of RT-PCR tests, execute effective containment measures, and augment hospital bed capacity if occupancy surpasses 40 percent.
According to certain official data cited by ‘The Indian Express’, portrayed a disproportionately large share of Rapid Antigen tests that are significantly less accurate than the gold standard RT- PCR tests and further tend to produce a large number of false negatives.
Therefore, it suggests that the situation in the region might be much worse than what the test indicates. A bigger section of the population might get contracted with the virus.
Manipur
The state reported a weekly positivity rate of 14.69 percent. In 16 districts, 19 percent of tests on average were RT-PCR tests.
Tengnoupal, Bishnupur, Kakching, Thoubal, Imphal East and West, Churchandrapur, and Kangpokpi are the state that exhibited a positivity rate of more than 10 percent.
The Center enquired the state to analyze the rising death in the districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, and Bishnupur.
Meghalaya
The state marked a weekly positivity of 14.77 percent. In 11 districts, 17 percent RT-PCR tests on average were conducted.
North Garo Hills, Ri Bhoi, East Khasi Hills, South Garo Hills, West Jaintia Hills, East Jaintia Hills, West Khasi hills are the seven states that showed more than 10 percent positivity.
The Centre notified that East Khasi Hills have recorded 26 death during June 28- July 4, leading to a 53 percent rise in weekly death as compared to the past weeks.
Arunachal Pradesh
The state showed a weekly positivity of around 6.74 percent. Nearly 3 percent of RT-PCR tests on average were carried out in the state.
Kurung Kumey, Kamle, East Siang, Dibang Valley, and Anjaw are the states that yielded more than a 10 percent positivity rate.
Sikkim
The state put forward a weekly positivity of 24.98 percent. Around 73 percent of RT-PCR tests were conducted.
West district, East District, South District, North District had over 10 percent positivity rate.
The Center raised concerns about the mortality reported in the East district.
Assam
The state exhibited a weekly positivity of 4.41 percent and 12 percent of tests were RT-PCR tests.
Charaideo, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Golaghat are the four districts that showed over 10 cent positivity rate.
The Center emphasized the rising number of deaths in the past four weeks in Jorhat and Sivasagar.
Tripura
Weekly positivity in the state is around 9.39 percent. 28 percent of tests were RT-PCR tests.
Khowai, Unakoti, Dhalai reported a more than 10 percent positivity rate.
The center raised concern about the increasing number of death in West Tripura.
Mizoram
The state portrayed a weekly positivity of 8.15 percent. 17 percent of the test conducted were RT-PCR.
Lawngati, Lunglei, Aizwal are the three districts that put forward an over 10 percent positivity rate.
Nagaland
The weekly positivity of the state is 7.14 percent. Around 37 percent of RT-PCR tests were carried out.
Longleng, Kohima, and Tuensang are the districts that exhibited over a 10 percent positivity rate.
