Arunachal's COVID-19 tally crosses 1,000-mark with 65 fresh cases

Itanagar, July 25 (PTI): Arunachal Pradesh''s coronavirus tally crossed the 1,000-mark on Saturday as 65 more people, including 33 security personnel, tested positive for the disease, a Health Department official said.

With the fresh infections, the total number of cases rose to 1,056, State Surveillance Officer Dr L Jampa said.

Of the new cases, 30 were reported from Papum Pare district, five from Tirap, three from Lohit, two from Lower Dibang Valley and one each from Namsai and West Kameng and 23 from the Capital Complex region, he said.

"All the 30 infected people in Papum Pare are Indo Tibetan Border Police personnel and they have been in a quarantine centre, while the 23 cases in the Capital Complex have been detected from various areas of the region," he said.

Of the five fresh patients in Tirap, two are state police personnel, he said, adding that a healthcare worker, an employee of the Water Resources Department and a returnee from Assam also tested positive for the disease in the district.

The three infected people in Lohit district are staffers of the Border Road Task Force, (BRTF). They had recently come from Uttar Pradesh and were in a quarantine centre, Jampa said.

The state surveillance officer said the two patients from Roing in Lower Dibang Valley district are returnees from Assam, while the person from West Kameng is a staffer of the Army, who recently came from Andhra Pradesh.

The Namsai patient had also returned from Assam, he said.

"All, barring six, are asymptomatic and have been shifted to COVID Care Centres," Jampa said.

Arunachal Pradesh witnessed a spurt in coronavirus cases after residents of the state started returning from other parts of the country.

There has been a steep rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the state since July 1 as 865 people have so far tested positive for the disease during the current month, Jampa said.

The first COVID-19 case in the state was reported on April 2 and the person recovered on April 16. The state reported its second case after a gap of almost six weeks on May 24.

The Capital Complex, comprising Itanagar, Naharlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa areas, recorded the highest of 374 COVID-19 cases, followed by Papum Pare (57) Namsai (42), East Siang (39) and Changlang (20) districts.

Fifty-eight patients -- 45 from the Capital Complex region, 10 from Changlang district, two from Lower Subansiri and one from Namsai -- were discharged from hospitals on Friday, the official said.

The state now has 661 active cases, while 392 people have recovered from the disease and three died of the infection.

"The recovery rate in the state stands at 35 per cent," Jampa said, adding that 53,335 samples have been tested in the state so far.