Northeast, July 12: PM Narendra Modi will interact with Chief Ministers of North Eastern States of Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram at 11 am tomorrow via video conferencing. He will talk to the CMs about the COVID-19 situation in these states, a source said.
This comes as there is fresh fear about the COVID-19 pandemic rearing its head again as the R-factor, which indicates the speed at which the infection is spreading in India, has risen recently leading to a sluggish pace in the decline of active cases while Kerala and North-East states have emerged as regions of concern.
Two days back, at least 90 per cent of samples in Tripura that were sent for genome sequencing have been found to contain the highly transmissible Delta Plus variant. The emergence of Delts plus strain in Tripura – which is one of the few small states with good vaccination coverage – has alarmed officials.
To break the high transmission rate, Tripura has reimposed its 24 hours weekend curfew from 12 pm today to 6 am Monday. The state has already imposed a curfew in urban areas including the capital Agartala where the positivity was the highest at around 10 per cent.
Earlier this month, the Centre deployed multi-disciplinary expert teams to six states, including Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, after they showed a spurt in Covid-19 cases.
Union health and family welfare ministry said around 80% of the Covid-19 cases in India at the moment are being witnessed from 90 districts and as many as 14 of them are from the northeast.
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During the review meeting last week by PM Modi, it was found that of the 73 districts in the country with case positivity rates above 10%, as many as 46 belonged to the North-Eastern states, prompting the Centre to put its focus on the region.
A recent letter circulated by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that Arunachal Pradesh is concerned that the state has a weekly positivity rate of 16.2% (between June 28 and July 4) trend saw an upward rise.
Other northeastern states, such as Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, too, have been reporting high positivity rates.
