Aizawl: A 50-year-old pastor, who recently returned from Amsterdam, tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Mizoram, making it the second case of the disease in the North East, Health Minister R Lalthangliana said on Wednesday.
The test report of the man, a resident of Aizawl, arrived on Tuesday night from the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), he said.
“We received the test result late last night. It is an imported case and the patient is fine,” Lalthangliana told reporters.
The health minister urged people not to panic after the state reported its first case.
Eric Zomawia, the mission director of National Health Mission (NHM) here, said the patient was in the Netherlands for higher studies. He took a flight from Amsterdam to Doha and then reached Delhi.
He then flew to Guwahati and from there took another flight to Aizawl. “He arrived here on March 16,” said Zomawia.
State health department’s principal director F Lallianhlira told PTI that the patient was put under home quarantine soon after his arrival here.
The patient was having fever since March 18 but consulted a doctor only on March 22, following which his sample was sent to the GMCH for testing, Zomawia said.
The patient, his wife and two children have been admitted to the isolation ward at the Zoram Medical College (ZMC), about 16 km from Aizawl, soon after his results came in on Tuesday night, he added.
The state government is tracing the people he came in contact with and has advised his co-passengers on the Guwahati-Aizawl flight to go on self-quarantine, Zomawia said.
The health condition of the patient is improving and he is now stable, he said.
Govt calls retired doctors
Stepping up measures against Covid-19 after the first positive case was reported in the state on Wednesday, the Mizoram government decided to use the services of retired doctors and rope in private hospitals to fight novel coronavirus.
Facing a manpower crunch, the state government has collected details of retired doctors and prepared duty rosters, health departments principal director Dr F Lallianhlira said.
Health Minister Dr R Lalthangliana told reporters that the state government has formed a medical operation team with private hospitals to strengthen coordination and medical facility in the fight against the novel coronavirus. He thanked owners of private hospitals for extending their help to the state government in its effort to contain the outbreak.
The Mizoram government has also urged its Assam and Tripura counterparts to stop the movement of people across the inter-state borders during the lockdown period.
Lalthangliana said he has called up Assam Chief Minister Sarbananada Sonowal and Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma and requested them to maintain strict vigil along the inter-state borders.
The health minister also asked people of Mizoram currently staying in other parts of the country to remain where they are and not to enter the state. He said the state government has made special arrangement to accommodate stranded passengers at Mizoram Houses in various cities across the country. (PTI)
