Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Dr. Jitendra Singh today said that there is a progressive decline in COVID cases in all the North Eastern States except Meghalaya. 

In a meeting convened to review the COVID situation in the North Eastern States, the Minister expressed satisfaction that all the States are catching up with the national average in terms of decline in positivity rate. Meghalaya is the only exception that witnessed a surge due to the Corona outbreak in a Jail in District Ri-bhoi, he added. 

Dr. Jitendra Singh was informed that in the North Eastern Region, the positivity rate, which was 3.96% on 30th June 2021 has gone down to 2.94% on 2 July 2021. This is in tune with the national average declining from 2.34% on 30 June 2021 to 2.09% on 2nd July 2021. 

The meeting was attended by Health Secretaries and senior officials of all the eight North-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland as well as Union Secretary Ministry of North East, Secretary North Eastern Council and Joint Secretary In-charge Northeast in the Ministry of Health and a senior official from NITI Aayog. 

All the eight States informed the Minister that they are taking regular measures to defeat the 2nd wave of the pandemic and at the same time augmenting the health infrastructure with support from the Central Government and the Ministry of DoNER. Dr. Jitendra Singh cautioned that decline in active cases must be followed with greater thrust on vaccination and strict observance of Corona Protocol. He said, he is in constant touch with all the eight Chief Ministers of North Eastern States and whatever help is sought from the States is being promptly provided from the Centre. The Minister took note of the vaccine supply issues of the States of Nagaland and Manipur and directed the Union Health Ministry officials to address the same on an urgent basis. 

Dr. Jitendra Singh said, what is worrisome is that in the last wave of the pandemic, the Northeast had remained relatively unaffected by COVID compared to many other States, and some States like Sikkim did not have a single corona positive case throughout the lockdown period. But in contrast this year, North Eastern States have also witnessed a significant rise in corona positive cases.

In the month of May, during the peak in Corona cases in the North-Eastern States, Dr. Jitendra Singh had taken a high-level meeting in the wake of considerable media attention. He had directed the officials to find ways and means of ensuring that the rising graph of corona positive cases in the different North Eastern States starts declining or immediately shows the flattening of the Curve. The Minister had advised for strict enforcement measures and extensive testing and contact tracing measures. 

Dr. Jitendra Singh said that he is taking daily updates from all the 8 North Eastern States about the prevalence of COVID and necessary health facilities and infrastructure to fight the pandemic in an effective manner. He expressed satisfaction that all the North Eastern States have sufficient bed capacities and oxygen stock. He said the Ministry of DoNER and NEC is taking proactive steps in supplementing and augmenting the COVID-related infrastructure. He also referred to support given by Japan and UNDP for the installation of Oxygen Plants in each of the eight North Eastern States.

Dr. Jitendra Singh noted that during the 1st phase, all the eight North Eastern States managed COVID-19 very effectively and the entire region emerged as a model of Corona management in the entire country. He, however, expressed concern that during the second phase COVID-19 took a huge toll in the region in comparison to last year.