Centre lends a helping hand to NE States in the fight against COVID-19
open view news desk
NEW DELHI, JUNE 26: The fight against the pandemic across the country has been a concerted and collective endeavour. The Centre has pro-actively and strongly supported strengthening of the medical care infrastructure in the NE States to fight COVID-19.
The North Eastern (NE) states have a comparatively lower number of COVID-19 cases compared to the country. As depicted in the table below, 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.
| Sr. No. | State | Active Cases | Recoveries | Death |
| 1 | Arunachal Pradesh | 121 | 38 | 1 |
| 2 | Assam | 2279 | 4033 | 9 |
| 3 | Manipur | 702 | 354 | 0 |
| 4 | Meghalaya | 3 | 42 | 1 |
| 5 | Mizoram | 115 | 30 | 0 |
| 6 | Nagaland | 195 | 160 | 0 |
| 7 | Sikkim | 46 | 39 | 0 |
| 8 | Tripura | 270 | 1019 | 1 |
| Total | 3731 | 5715 | 12 |
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.
| Serial No. | State | Public Labs | Private Labs | Total Labs |
| 1 | Arunachal Pradesh | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | Assam | 10 | 2 | 12 |
| 3 | Manipur | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Meghalaya | 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 5 | Mizoram | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Nagaland | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| 7 | Sikkim | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Tripura | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 39 | 3 | 42 |
The 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.
The present status is as follows:
| Serial No. | State | Dedicated COVID Hospitals / DCH | Dedicated COVID Health Center / DCHC | Dedicated COVID Center / DCCC | No of Facility |
| 1 | Arunachal Pradesh | 4 | 31 | 51 | 86 |
| 2 | Assam | 32 | 267 | 1001 | 1300 |
| 3 | Manipur | 2 | 18 | 1 | 21 |
| 4 | Meghalaya | 7 | 24 | 14 | 45 |
| 5 | Mizoram | 1 | 15 | 15 | 31 |
| 6 | Nagaland | 12 | 1 | 1 | 14 |
| 7 | Sikkim | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 8 | Tripura | 1 | 2 | 13 | 16 |
| Total | 60 | 360 | 1098 | 1518 |
Also, Government of India has supported the NE States in stepping up the number of ICU beds, Isolation beds, Oxygen supported beds and ventilators. This has played a critical role in effective clinical management of COVID-19 cases.
| Sr. No. | State | Total Isolation beds (excluding ICU beds) | O2 Supported beds | Total ICU beds | No of Ventilators |
| 1 | Arunachal Pradesh | 1998 | 178 | 60 | 16 |
| 2 | Assam | 67833 | 1841 | 598 | 350 |
| 3 | Manipur | 829 | 317 | 48 | 45 |
| 4 | Meghalaya | 1231 | 345 | 83 | 95 |
| 5 | Mizoram | 709 | 213 | 37 | 27 |
| 6 | Nagaland | 681 | 142 | 54 | 28 |
| 7 | Sikkim | 251 | 224 | 20 | 59 |
| 8 | Tripura | 1277 | 10 | 13 | 7 |
The Centre has also strongly supported the NE states to step up the availability of N95 masks, PPE kits and HCQ tablets.
| Sr.No. | State / UT / Central Government Institutions | N95 masks distributed ( lakh) | PPE kits distributed (lakh) | HCQ tablets distributed (lakh) |
| 1 | Arunachal Pradesh | 1.21 | 0.66 | 1.5 |
| 2 | Assam | 3.37 | 2.01 | 6.7 |
| 3 | Manipur | 0.95 | 0.79 | 2.7 |
| 4 | Meghalaya | 0.75 | 0.52 | 1.75 |
| 5 | Mizoram | 0.76 | 0.31 | 2.2 |
| 6 | Nagaland | 0.7 | 0.25 | 1.75 |
| 7 | Sikkim | 0.80 | 0.52 | 0.25 |
| 8 | Tripura | 1.38 | 1.13 | 2.5 |
