Coronavirus Rapidly Spreading In All Of North East Except Assam, Growth Rate Above 16%: Report

Cases of COVID-19 are on the rise once again in Kerala and also in India’s North East. Last week’s COVID-19 data shows that growth in cases in some districts in India. But all of India’s North Eastern states, except Assam, have seen a 16.2% increase in COVID-19 cases last week. A spike in COVID-19 cases was seen in four out of seven North Eastern states, while Arunachal Pradesh recorded cases close to the state’s peak reached last week.

Although they do not come close to the 110,000 cases of COVID-19 found in Kerala in the last week (July 19 – July 25), they still remain a source of concern for the health department. 24,632 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the seven North Eastern states of India last week. This is higher than the 21,200 cases recorded the week before. 

Rise in COVID-19 cases 

This is the third consecutive week where a growth in COVID-19 cases has been registered in the region. A 14.5% drop in weekly cases was registered in the North-Eastern states between June 20 and 27, five weeks ago. There was a slight change in case numbers in the following few weeks. However, the positivity rate has continued to increase in the last few weeks. In the last three weeks, COVID-19 positive case rate was recorded at 17.3%, 15% and 16.2%. 

In comparison to the previous week, the COVID-19 positivity rate in Mizoram increased by 56%, while it increased by 47.7% in Sikkim and by 35.5% in Meghalaya. Manipur recorded the highest number of COVID-19 cases among the seven states where rate of positive COVID-19 cases increased by 10%. 7,845 new positive cases were registered in this state this week, against 7,091 new positive cases last week. Although the weekly COVID-19 positivity rate has decreased by 17.7 percent in Assam, more than 1500 daily cases are still being reported in the state. 

More COVID-19 positive cases were recorded in India on Monday than on Sunday. After the second wave, a decline in daily case numbers was seen, which did not happen on Monday. Owing to the lower number of tests being conducted due to the weekend, Monday sees fewer number of positive cases. On Monday, 30,619 new COVID-19 cases were reported in India, compared to 29,314 new cases on last Monday. 411 COVID-19 related deaths were recorded on Monday, in comparison to 408 COVID-19 related deaths recorded on last Monday.