No COVID-19 death in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim so far: Health Ministry

No COVID-19 death has been reported from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim so far, and the number of cases in the northeastern region was comparatively lower than the rest of the country, the government said on Friday.

It also said that lack of testing facilities and dedicated COVID-19 hospitals had initially hampered the fight against the dreaded virus in the eight northeastern states, but the infrastructure has been bolstered since then.

As on date, the number of recoveries at 5,715 exceed the active cases which stand at 3,731. The death toll in the entire region is 12, the Union health ministry said.

The fight against the pandemic across the country has been a concerted and collective endeavour and the Centre has pro-actively and strongly supported the strengthening of the medical care infrastructure in the northeastern states to fight COVID-19, it said.

"A critical pillar which hampered the efforts of the northeastern states in combating the COVID-19 outbreak was complete lack of testing facilities. But today, because of the focussed attention of the Centre through the Health Ministry, the region has 39 testing labs in the public sector and three in the private sector, totalling to 42 laboratories," the ministry said.

Assam has 10 public and two private laboratories, while Meghalaya has six public and one private lab. Nagaland has 13 testing labs, Arunachal Pradesh three, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim two each, and Tripura one public laboratory for COVID-19 testing.

"The NE states also suffered from an acute lack of dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, COVID Health Centres and COVID Care Centres (DCCC). With the help of the Centre, the healthcare infrastructure across all the eight states has been substantially supplemented," the ministry said.

It now has 1,518 COVID-19 dedicated health facilities, including 60 hospitals, 360, health centres, and care centres.

"The central government has supported the eight states in stepping up the number of ICU beds, isolation beds, oxygen-supported beds and ventilators. This has played a critical role in effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases," the health ministry said.

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Assam has 67,833 isolation, 1,841 oxygen-supported and 598 ICU beds, and 350 ventilators. Arunachal Pradesh has 1,998 isolation, 178 oxygen-supported, and 60 ICU beds, and 16 ventilators.

There are 1,231 isolation, 345 oxygen-supported and 83 ICU beds, and 95 ventilators in Meghalaya, 681 isolation, 142 oxygen-supported, 54 ICU beds and 28 ventilators in Nagaland, and 251 isolation, 224 oxygen-supported, 20 ICU beds and 59 ventilators in Sikkim.

Tripura has 1,277 isolation, 10 oxygen-supported, 13 ICU beds and seven ventilators.  Manipur has availability of 829 isolation, 317 oxygen supported and 48 ICU beds and 45 ventilators while Mizoram has 709 isolation, 213 oxygen-supported and 37 ICU beds, and 27 ventilators.

The Centre has also strongly supported the NE states to step up the availability of N95 masks, PPE kits and hydroxychloroquine tablets.

So far, 1.21 lakh N95 masks, 0.66 lakh PPE kits and 1.5 lakh hydroxychloroquine tablets have been distributed in Arunachal Pradesh, 3.37 lakh N95 masks, 2.01 lakh kits and 6.7 lakh HCQ tablets in Assam, 0.95 lakh N95 masks, 0.79 lakh PPE kits and 2.7 lakh HCQ tablets have been distributed in Manipur.

Meghalaya has been given 0.75 lakh N95 masks, 0.52 lakh PPE kits and 1.75 lakh hydroxychloroquine tablets, 0.76 lakh N95 masks, 0.31 lakh PPE kits and 2.2 lakh HCQ tablets have been distributed in Mizoram, while Nagaland has been provided 0.7 lakh N95 masks, 0.25 lakh PPE kits and 1.75 lakh hydroxychloroquine tablets.

So far, 0.80 lakh N95 masks, 0.52 lakh PPE kits and 0.25 lakh  HCQ tablets have been distributed in Sikkim while 1.38 lakh N95 masks, 1.13 lakh PPE kits and 2.5 lakh hydroxychloroquine tablets have been provided to Tripura.

As on date, Arunachal Pradesh has 121 active coronavirus cases while 38 have recovered. The state reported its first COVID-19 fatality on Friday. Assam has 2,279 active cases, 4,033 patients have recovered while nine persons have succumbed to the infection.

Manipur presently has 702 active cases with 354 recoveries. Meghalaya has registered three active cases, 42 recoveries and one death, while Tripura has 270 active cases after 1,019 recoveries and one death. Nagaland has 195, Mizoram 115 and Sikkim 46 active cases. 

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