3 Army personnel among six new COVID-19 cases in Arunachal Pradesh

Six more people, including three Army personnel, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Arunachal Pradesh, taking the total number of cases in the state to 67, a health department official said on Friday. Three Army men tested positive for the disease in Singchung sub-division of West Kameng district on Thursday night, while two persons were detected with the infection in Changlang and one in Longding, he said.

"The three Army personnel had recently returned from Bihar, while the two from Changlang had come from Noida and the one from Longding had travelled back from Gujarat. They are asymptomatic and lodged in quarantine centres," State Surveillance Officer Dr L Jampa said.

The Army has its own protocol and the three would be managed by them, he said. Contact tracing has been initiated, Dr T Taipodia, who is dealing with the COVID-19 management in Arunachal Pradesh, said. West Kameng district's COVID-19 nodal officer Dr Kesang Wangda has issued an advisory to civilians living in and around the Army cantonment areas of Tenga and Dahung, requesting them not to enter into restricted areas unnecessarily.One of the three Army personnel is a doctor, sources said. Arunachal Pradesh has 63 active cases, while four patients have recovered from the disease.

Among the active cases, 42 are from Changland district, followed by three each from East Siang and West Kameng, two each from Namsai and Lohit and one each from Lower Dibang Valley, Tawang, Upper Siang, Tirap, Longding and West Siang districts. Five active cases are from the capital complex comprising Itanagar and Naharlagun.

According to a bulletin of the health department, a total of 13,479 samples were tested in the state till Thursday, while results of 1,627 are awaited. The first case in Arunachal Pradesh was reported in April 2, after a 31-year-old man tested positive for the disease following his return from a religious congregation in Delhi. He was discharged from a hospital on April 16. After almost six weeks, the state had registered its second case on May 24, after a student who had returned from Delhi tested positive for the disease.