The return of 3.50 lakh natives from south and north India has led to a surge in coronavirus cases in the eight northeastern states to 2,156, including 1,623 active cases till Tuesday night, ministers and officials said.
Of the eight states of the NE region, only Mizoram was the COVID-19 free state until Monday, but 12 youths including 11 girls, tested positive for nCoV on Tuesday after they arrived in Aizawl from Delhi and Kolkata.
According to the health and home department officials of Assam, since the withdrawal of the inter-state restrictions by the union Home Ministry on May 4, around 2.50 lakh people returned to Assam from 14 states taking the coronavirus patients tally to 1,513 in Assam. Health and home department officials in the other seven northeastern states said that already over one lakh residents have returned to Tripura, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim and at least two lakh more are expected to return to these states.
Once a malaria-prone region, home to 45.58 million people
( With inputs from IANS )