Guwahati/Shillong, Apr 16 (IANS): There is no coronavirus hotspot district or red zones in northeast region, while there are five districts in Assam had clusters or orange zones, officials said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, with two more coronavirus positive cases reported in Assam on Thursday, the total number of such cases in the northeastern region (excluding Sikkim) reached 46, with 34 from Assam alone.
According to the health officials of northeastern states, there are seven districts in Assam, two districts in Tripura, and one district each in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya, which have been classified as non-hotspots districts reporting cases.
Health officials said that, according to the letter of Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan to Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories, there are five districts in Assam - Golaghat, Marigaon, Nalbari, Goalpara, Dhubri -- categorised as hotspot district with clusters or orange zones.
In the region there are seven districts in Assam - Cachar, Hailakandi, Kamrup, Kamrup (Metro), Lakhimpur,South Salmara-Mancachar and Karimganj, two districts in Tripiura -- Gomati and North Tripura, one each district in Arunachal Pradesh (Lohit), Mizoram (Aizawl) and Meghalaya (East Khasi Hills) which have been classified as as green zones.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in a tweet, said: "Two persons from Morigaon (north-central of Assam) have tested COVID-19 positive. They are secondary contacts of Nizamuddin Markaz attendees. The cumulative number of patients in Assam now stands at 34. So far, 5 patients have been cured (since Wednesday)."
The tally in other NE states is: Six in Meghalaya (after one death), two each in Manipur and Tripura, and one each in Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
Of the 46 people, 34 had either attended the Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month or their close contacts had.
Two persons have so far died in the Northeast -- a senior 69-year-old doctor in Meghalaya on Wednesday and a 65-years-old man, with a travel history to Saudi Arabia and Delhi in Hailakandi district in southern Assam, on April 10.
In an odd development, the body of a veteran doctor was finally buried in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills on Thursday afternoon with the intervention of various authorities, government and elderly people.
East Khasi Hills District Deputy Commissioner Matsiewdor War Nongbri told IANS over phone that the mortal remains of the senior doctor were buried at Riatsamthiah Presbyterian Church cemetery at Lawmali on Thursday afternoon. A senior police officer said after the doctor died of coronavirus at 2.45 a.m. on Wednesday, the residents of Jhalupara, Mawbah and Shillong cantonment area and elsewhere had refused to dispose of the body fearing it could pose health hazard in the overcrowded localities.