India’s northeastern States are showing an alarming rise in Covid-19 cases even as the country overall is reporting a steady decline in daily fresh additions.
Data shows that almost 80 per cent of the new Covid-19 cases are now coming from India’s 90 districts alone. What’s more, there are 77 districts which are still reporting over 10 per cent case positivity rate, and at least 43 or around 59 per cent of these districts are concentrated in the North Eastern states.
For June 23-29 week, 71 districts across 16 states reported a high-test positivity ratio of 10 per cent or above, however, six more districts have joined the group taking the number to 77 since then.
The country’s national weekly positivity rate is currently at 2.40 per cent and daily positivity rate has remained below five per cent for 28 consecutive days. But a closer look at the data shows the total number of districts reporting more than 10 per cent positivity rate has gone up to 77.
Districts having more than 10 per cent positivity are identified as districts of concern. Arunachal Pradesh has 19 such districts. This means 10 in every 100 persons tested for Covid-19 are positive for Covid-19.
The number of such districts in Manipur is eight, followed by seven in Meghalaya, four each in Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, and two in Assam.
The East Kameng in Arunachal Pradesh is reporting the highest test positivity ratio in India at 86.67 per cent. Changland has a positivity rate of 80.61 per cent.
This has prompted the government to underscore that the second wave is not over yet. The Centre has deputed multi-disciplinary teams to Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Manipur in view of the increased number of Covid-19 cases being reported by these states.
With 553 fresh fatalities, India recorded the lowest daily death toll in around 90 days while 34,703 new cases of coronavirus were reported, the lowest in 111 days, the Ministry said on Tuesday. The total tally of Covid-19 cases is 3,06,19,932, while the death toll is 4,03,281.