September 12, 2020: The Central government on Friday directed the eight northeastern states-- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission and implement stringent containment measures as these states have reported to at least 43,747 active cases.

According to the data released by the Union Health Ministry, these states are accounting for less than five per cent of the active coronavirus cases in the country.

As of now, India has 9,43,480 active cases across the country.

Presently, Assam has 29,690 active cases which amount to 68 per cent share in the total active caseload of these northeastern states. Assam is followed by Tripura with 7,383 active cases with 17 per cent of the total active caseload of these states.

Arunachal Pradesh has 1,658 active cases, Manipur has 1,633 cases, Meghalaya has 1,434 cases, Nagaland has 834 cases, Mizoram has 583 cases whereas 532 cases are reported in Sikkim.

In this regard, Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary held a video conference (VC) on Friday with the Principal Secretaries and Health Secretaries of concerned states, the health ministry said.

Bhushan advised states to limit and break the spread of the infection by implementing stringent containment measures and following social distancing measures, strict perimeter control and active house-to-house case search.

He asked the authorities of North Eastern States to do early identification by ramping up testing across the states and districts. He also directed them to do judicious and full utilization of RT-PCR testing capacity.

"Effective monitoring of home isolation cases and early hospitalization in case of disease progression should be done especially in cases of co-morbid and elderly population," said the health ministry adding that the states have also been strongly directed to keep covid19 mortality rate below one per cent.