Northeast sees spike in coronavirus cases as stranded citizens return home

As stranded residents started returning home, \Northeast has seen a spike in COVID-19 positive cases with Assam and Manipur reporting 41 new cases in the past 48-hours.

Assam reported 26 new COVID-19 positive cases on Tuesday, most of whom had returned from Chennai and Darjeeling and are in quarantine centres. This took the state's total number of positive cases to 141, of which 94 are active patients. Three persons have succumbed to the virus so far.

Many of them had gone for treatment or as tourists but got stranded after the country-wide lockdown was clamped by the Centre on March 24.

Manipur, on the other hand reported seven new cases since Monday, with two more persons testing COVID-19 positive on Tuesday. A statement issued by the state health department said a 64-year-old woman and her daughter, aged 23 years, who returned from New Delhi on May 16 tested positive. Manipur had earlier declared itself as "COVID-19 free state" after two positive persons recovered and were discharged from hospitals.

The Northeast reported less number of COVID-19 cases compared to rest of the country but the number of cases increased after the Centre started Shramik Special trains to transport stranded residents from rest of the country.

Chief public relations officer, Northeast Frontier Railways, Subhanan Chanda said on Tuesday that 13 Shramik Special trains reached Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh with 17,000 passengers so far, while another 6-7 trains will reach the region in the next couple of days.

These Shramik Special trains came mainly from Kozhikkode (Calicut), Kota, Jaipur, Nandurbar, Hisar, Surat, Sirhind Jn, Vadodara, Udaipur, Bharuch, Ghatkesar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Aligarh, Rohtak, Kalyan, Bibinagar Jn, Bhiwani, Jalandhar, Meerut, Dehradun, Rampur, Habibganj, Rayanapadu (Vijaywada), Karaikal, Bengaluru, Karamnasa, Mangalore Central, Moradabad, Namburu, Pettaivaytalai and various stations in Mumbai, Chennai, he said.

Assam health department has decided to conduct tests on those showing preliminary symptoms after returning to the state. However, home quarantine for 14-days has been made mandatory for all those not showing symptom during screening.