Northeast’s first Covid-19 patient cured, returns home

Imphal/Guwahati, April 12 (IANS) There is good news from Manipur, where a 23-year-old woman, who had returned from the UK last month and become the first positive coronavirus case in the entire northeastern region, was now declared completely free of the dreaded virus and returned home from the hospital on Sunday.

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, in a tweet, said : “Thank God.Thanks to all the doctors and staff of JNIMS with folded hands. The first COVID-19 infected girl (name) of Imphal has been discharged from hospital today (Sunday). Let’s stay safe, let’s stay at home.”

The woman underwent treatment of around three weeks at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal.

Manipur Health and Family Welfare Department’s Additional Director and spokesperson Khoirom Sasheekumar Mangang told IANS over phone that the woman would be put under home quarantine for next 14 days.

“Her family members, especially the father were counselled by a team led by a State Surveillance Officer,” the official said.

Mangang said that 19 close contacts of a person, who left Manipur on March 12 and tested positive in Bengaluru on April 8, are tested negative in Imphal’s Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

Besides the 23-year-old woman, another 65-year-old man from Lilong, near Imphal, had tested positive for nCoV and is undergoing treatment now at the RIMS. The man had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at the Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi.

The Manipur Chief Minister earlier announced that the state government was actively considering cash incentives or awards to those who are working in the frontline, including doctors and nurses.

Of the total 34 positive cases, found so far in five northeastern states — Assam (28), Manipur (2), Tripura (2), Mizoram (1) and Arunachal Pradesh (1), 28 took part in a Tablighi Jamaat meet in Delhi last month.

A Mizoram man tested positive last month after he returned from the Netherlands while a 52-year-old trader in Assam’s Kamrup (Metro) district has also tested positive for coronavirus. Both of them undergoing treatment in medical colleges in Aizawl and Guwahati respectively.

–IANS

sc/vd