GUWAHATI: The number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases in the Northeast has shot up to 20 till Thursday afternoon with Arunachal Pradesh registering its first such case, and as many as 16 cases, all attendees of the Nizamuddin Markaz, detected in Assam itself.
In fact, since the first case in the region was reported from Manipur on March 24, 2020 and subsequently another from Mizoram, where the persons contracting the virus had reportedly travelled overseas, there has been a surge of COVID positive cases in the region in the past couple of days.
It has been officially confirmed that 18 of the 20 infected so far in the Northeast had attended the Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin, Delhi held earlier last month.
Assam health and family welfare minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted in the wee hours of Thursday that swab samples of three persons from Goalpara district, who had part in the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz, tested positive for coronavirus.
The tweet followed confirmation of eight such cases (all residents of Golaghat district) from Jorhat Medical College Hospital and four cases at Guwahati Medical College Hospital on Wednesday.
Assam had registered its first positive case on Tuesday evening with a 52-year-old man from Karimganj contracting the virus.
Meanwhile, in a tweet on Thursday, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said that a 31-year-old person (reportedly from Tezu in Lohit district) who had taken part at Nizamuddin Markaz was found positive and that he is the first such case in the state.
“At present, he is asymptomatic and is kept in isolation. His condition is stable,” Khandu tweeted on Thursday morning.
In a similar development, Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh also confirmed the second COVID-19 positive case in Manipur. “Now in Manipur, COVID-19 positive cases are two. Some are under quarantine centres for observation,” Singh posted on Twitter in the wee hours of Thursday.