Battling a prolonged second wave of the pandemic, the Northeastern States will get a central financial package of Rs 1,300 crore as an aid to fight the crisis which refuses to abate in the region. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya made an announcement in this regard on Tuesday.
After reviewing the Covid-19 situation with Health Ministers of all the Northeastern States in Guwahati, Mandaviya told reporters that the fund is being provided to purchase medicines, enhance oxygen supply, increase beds — general, ICU and children — at local and district-level hospitals.
“The fund will also be utilised to speed up the vaccination drive by the States in the region. The Government of India is committed to provide enough vaccines to the States,” he said adding the peak in the region was seen much later than the rest of India and so it was taking time to decline.
“In the last two weeks, the cases have started declining in the Northeast and this is a good sign. All the States took various steps to contain the second wave and it is ending now,” Mandaviya said.
The NE States, which were considered the safest in the country during the first wave of the pandemic, are now being ranked among States with the highest number of cases.
A tiny State like Mizoram has 10,618 active cases now. This is a huge number when compared with bigger States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh where the daily figures are around 500.
The daily positivity rate in Mizoram is 7-10%. Assam’s 8,654 active cases may not be considered high as the State recorded over 5.78 lakh cases from March 31 last year. Manipur remains closest to Assam with 6,671 active cases though it had about 1.07 lakh confirmed cases during that period, said an official from the Union Ministry.
There is a fear that if the third wave strikes, NE may report a huge surge. This could be because other States have already seen this surge and States in the region are yet to experience peaking.
Assam, which reported the highest 3.6 lakh cases in the second wave in the region, has been able to fully vaccinate only about 24.21 lakh people of the 2.31 crore 18+ population. Similarly, the lowest of 1.67 lakh second dose has been administered in Nagaland.
“A large number of people are yet to be fully vaccinated in the Northeast. If a third wave strikes now, it can turn disastrous. The situation will improve if it does not. The positivity rate is coming down even in Mizoram, though it’s not at par with Assam’s less than 1%,” the official added.
However, considering the acceleration of the inoculation drive, they hope that a significant number of people may escape the wrath of the third wave. Nevertheless, they are not sure whether cases will drop in winter, like in the first wave. “Last year, we did not see many cases during winter. But no one knows what is on the cards,” Assam NHM director, Lakshmanan S had said recently.