The number of COVID-19 positive cases in the Northeast has almost quadrupled in a little more than a fortnight since May 2.
What has intrigued doctors and officials is that many of the new cases do not have any travel history besides maintaining minimum or no contact with people who had tested positive.
The total number of cases in the region was 61 till May 1 midnight. By Sunday, the figure increased to 287, three of whom — two in Assam and one in Meghalaya — died.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said a 9-year-old boy who returned from Delhi with his parents tested positive and was being treated at the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital. He is the youngest to have tested positive in the State after two 16-year-old girls, one of whom died.
The boy’s case , along with that of a 28-year-old who came from Chennai to Cachar district, took the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in Assam to 97. But Tripura led the table with 167 cases while Meghalaya and Manipur took the third and fourth spots with 13 and seven cases respectively.
The bulk (159) of Tripura’s cases were reported from two Border Security Force battalion headquarters.
The region, according to data provided by the Health ministries of the affected States, has 159 active cases — 101 in Tripura, 52 in Assam, five in Manipur and one in Meghalaya.
