NEW DELHI, June 26 - No COVID-19 death has been reported from Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim so far, and the number of cases in the North Eastern region was comparatively lower than the rest of the country, the Central Government said today.
It also said that lack of testing facilities and dedicated COVID-19 hospitals had initially hampered the fight against the dreaded virus in the eight North Eastern States, but the infrastructure has been bolstered since then.
To date, the number of recoveries at 5,715 exceed the active cases which stand at 3,731.
The death toll in the entire region is 12, the Union Health Ministry said.
The fight against the pandemic across the country has been a concerted and collective endeavour and the Centre has proactively and strongly supported the strengthening of the medical care infrastructure in the North Eastern States to fight COVID-19, it said.
�A critical pillar which hampered the efforts of the North Eastern States in combating the COVID-19 outbreak was complete lack of testing facilities. But today, because of the focused attention of the Centre through the Health Ministry, the region has 39 testing labs in the public sector and three in the private sector, totalling to 42 laboratories,� the ministry said.
Assam has 10 public and two private laboratories, while Meghalaya has six public and one private lab. Nagaland has 13 testing labs, Arunachal Pradesh three, Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim two each, and Tripura one public laboratory for COVID-19 testing.
�The NE States also suffered from an acute lack of dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, COVID Health Centres and COVID Care Centres. With the help of the Centre, the healthcare infrastructure across all the eight States has been substantially supplemented,� the ministry said.
It now has 1,518 COVID-19 dedicated health facilities, including 60 hospitals and 360 health centres and care centres.
�The Central Government has supported the eight 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,� the Health Ministry said.
The Centre has also strongly supported the NE States to step up the availability of N-95 masks, PPE kits and hydroxychloroquine tablets. � PTI
