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North Eastern states have gone on high alert after a spike in positive Covid-19 cases, most related to the religious congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Here is a round-up.
Assam
The Assam government has traced 488 people in the state who reportedly participated in a religious event organized by the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in New Delhi. Out of these, samples of 361 people have been collected and sent for testing. The total number of positive Covid-19 cases has now gone up to 16. Of these 16, twelve are in Assam, while four are still in Delhi.
In other developments, the Burha Jame Masjid, one of the oldest mosques in the city, is set to shut from Friday after the masjid committee urged devotees to offer prayers from home. Nizamul Haque, general secretary of the mosque, told The Telegraph, “It’s very important to follow the lockdown regulations as virus is spreading. Therefore, we have decided to shut the mosque for the people. Only three officials will conduct the namaz on Friday.”
In the Dhubri district of the state, about 25 members of the Muslim community led by the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) performed the last rites of a Hindu woman, their neighbour, as her relatives couldn’t reach her due to the nationwide lockdown. Dilower Hussain, AAMSU Organising Secretary, said, “Seeing their problem, AAMSU members and locals gathered at her home and called a Hindu priest from a nearby village to perform the rituals at her home. Thereafter, Muslim men carried the bier, chanting what the Hindus do. We also arranged the pyre and other requirements for her last rites at Panbari cremation ground and cremated her in the evening following all Hindu rituals.”
In the town of Kokrajhar, police officials and authorities are having a tough time getting people to maintain social distancing norms as they queue up to buy essentials which are open every day for only three hours. Due to these timings, the crowd ends up jostling for essentials every day. Residents are instead suggesting door-to-door distribution of ration to ensure that the lockdown has an effect.
The Assam government had announced measures to provide free rice to around 58 families under the NFSA Act through the public distribution system.
Mizoram
The Mizoram government has sounded an alert and increased up security along the inter-state border following a spike of Covid-19 positive cases in neighbouring states. Mizoram shares inter-state borders with Assam, Manipur and Tripura and international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
In Mizoram, a 50-year-old pastor, who had recently returned from Amsterdam, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 25, 2020.
Meghalaya
The administration in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills has closed all inter-state roads with immediate effect with Assam seeing the spike of Covid-19 cases there. The plains-belt-region of the West Garo Hills shares a long border with Assam.
The interstate movement of all types of vehicles and people will be restrained except for FCI trucks, oil tankers, LPG tankers, medical supplies and other vehicles for which specific authority letters/permissions will have to be issued for plying in designated routes. Only carrying of essential commodities like rice, dal, salt, onion, potatoes and others will be allowed via Bajengdoba-Tura route in the North and Tikrikilla route in the West after strict checking by medical and police teams.
So far, Meghalaya has not detected any Coronavirus case. Seven people from Meghalaya attended the religious congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Of these, five are still in Delhi and two are in Lucknow.
West Bengal
16 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state of West Bengal bringing the total reported cases to 53.
West Bengal Union Minister for women and child welfare, Debasree Chaudhuri came to the streets to urge people to stay indoors amid the Covid-19 pandemic. She had come in from New Delhi to Kolkata on March 23, but broke ignored the government’s advisory asking people who were coming in from other states to remain under 14 days of quarantine.
On Thursday, Chaudhuri said she was perturbed to see “hundreds of people roaming outside without any reason and blatantly violating the lockdown”, prompting her to step out of home to “spread awareness” about the virus and the restrictions. She also distributed masks to the people.
District Congress MLA Mohit Sengupta has lodged a complaint with the DM against Chaudhuri in the matter.
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh reported its first case of coronavirus on April 2. He was asymptomatic. The six who had travelled with him tested negative, but CM Pema Khandu said they would be re-tested. An Indian Air Force (IAF) plane landed at Dibrugarh Airport to provide the state with medicines and other PPE equipment. Arunachal Pradesh had already prepared a rapid response team for it shares a border with China.
Isolation wards at hospitals are also in place at Papum Pare, Namsai, Tirap, West Kameng and East Sian districts. Doctors have gained best practices training from New Delhi.
Manipur
The Manipur government has asked 31 people who travelled from Delhi to Imphal on March 11 to report to the coronavirus control room. These individuals are said to be “high risk” as they had come in contact with a 65-year-old man who had attended a religious congregation in Delhi.
10 of these have been quarantined at Lilong in Thoubal district and their samples have been sent for testing. However, none of these people have shown the symptoms of Covid-19.
Nagaland
The Nagaland government has released Rs 75 lakh to all deputy commissioners in the state from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. CM Neiphiu Rio also sanctioned Rs. 1 lakh each for Naga Students Union Punjab and Rajasthan.
He said an additional Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia will be paid to any health worker, currently in the line of duty, if he or she gets afflicted by Covid-19 besides Rs 50 lakh similar ex-gratia announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for them.
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