The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Friday said that northeast has a comparatively lower number of COVID-19 cases compared to the country.
As on date, while the active cases are 3731, the recoveries exceed this at 5715. The death rate continues to be low, with no deaths in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, the health ministry said.
“The fight against the pandemic across the country has been a concerted and collective endeavour. The Centre has pro-actively and strongly supported the strengthening of the medical care infrastructure in the NE States to fight COVID-19,” the ministry said.
A critical pillar which hampered the efforts of the NE states in combating was the COVID-19 outbreak was complete lack of testing facilities. But today, because of the focussed attention of the Centre through the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the NE has 39 testing labs in the public sector and three in the private sector, totalling to 42 labs, the ministry said.
NE states also suffered from an acute lack of dedicated COVID Hospitals, COVID Health Centres and COVID care Centres.
With the help of the Centre, the healthcare infrastructure across all the NE states has been substantially supplemented.
Government of India has supported the NE States is stepping up the number of ICU beds, Isolation beds, Oxygen supported beds and ventilators.
“This has played a critical role in the effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases,” the ministry said.
The Centre has also strongly supported the NE states to step up the availability of N95 masks, PPE kits and HCQ tablets.