From C K Nayak
New Delhi: Being landlocked Northeastern states dodged COVID -9 while the rest of the country was reeling under the pandemic in the initial months of the year.
The remoteness of the region, restrictions on outsiders and the lockdown had helped these eight states to remain mostly free of the virus. For some time, barring Assam and Meghalaya, the rest even remained corona free.
But after the lockdown ended and people from the region who had been living, working, or studying outside started returning, the number of COVID-19 cases has also gone up.
Personnel from various paramilitary forces deployed in the region have also contributed to a significant chunk to the coronavirus disease.
All states in the region have boundaries with other neighbouring nations and several of them are also battling insurgency and heavy deployment of armed as well as paramilitary forces are common in most of the seven states.
More forces were rushed to the region following violent clashes on the Indo-Chinese border which unfortunately coincided with the pandemic.
Among the Northeastern states, the biggest one with maximum population Assam has been the worst affected with nearly a lakh confirmed cases and 278 death tolls. But Assam is also considered as the main entry point to the rest of the country.
Next Tripura, which was also initially touted as a success story has seen the number of COVID-19 cases rising recently. The cases have crossed ten thousand with 89 deaths. Manipur is another state where over five thousand confirmed cases have been reported with over 25 casualties.
The rest of the states have confirmed cases between two to three thousand with deaths in single digits. Mizoram has about a thousand cases with no casualty so far.
But while the COVID-19 cases in the Northeast is far better than most of the states and the country, the recent spike is definitely a matter of concern, health experts said. There is also a concern about the number of tests being carried out except for the two worst-affected states.