The northeastern states have witnessed a recent spike in Covid-19 cases. The central government had rushed multi-disciplinary expert teams to six states earlier this month, four of which were from the northeastern region — Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be virtually interacting on Tuesday with the chief ministers of the northeastern states over the Covid-19 situation ahead of a potential third wave of the pandemic, news agencies reported on this day citing officials familiar with the matter. Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram have all received invites for attending the high-level meeting with the Prime Minister on July 13, the reports added.
Prime Minister Modi will interact with the chief ministers of the northeastern states at 11am on July 13 through video conferencing, government sources told news agency ANI. The proposed meeting follows Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba’s interaction with the officials of the northeastern states’ home departments last Wednesday amid concerns over rising cases of coronavirus infection in the region.
The northeastern states have witnessed a recent spike in Covid-19 cases, despite a decrease in the number of cases across India. The central government had rushed multi-disciplinary expert teams to six states earlier this month, four of which were from the northeastern region — Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare said that around 80% of the Covid-19 cases in India at the moment are being witnessed from 90 districts. As many as 14 of them are from the northeast, it added.
A recent letter circulated by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that Arunachal Pradesh is an area of concern that the state has a weekly positivity rate of 16.2% (between June 28 and July 4) and the trend saw an upward rise.
Meanwhile, India reported 37,154 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Union health ministry on Monday.
India’s active caseload of Covid-19 cases is at 4,50,899. The active cases constitute 1.46% of the total cases.