Mizoram reports second corona positive case in the Northeast

Guwahati: A man from Mizoram on Wednesday tested positive for the coronavirus Covid-19 at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital. This makes him the second corona positive case in the northeastern states.

The man has recent travel history to the Netherlands.

Mizoram’s Health and Family Welfare Board vice-chairman Dr Z R Thiamsanga, who is heading the operation against coronavirus in the state, told this newspaper that the 50-year-old Aizawl man’s family has been kept in isolation at the Zoram Medical College and Hospital in Mizoram.

Dr Thiamsanga, a Mizo National Front (MNF) MLA, said the patient was responding to treatment and doctors are confident about his recovery.

All the northeastern states, as also the rest of the country are in a complete 21-day lockdown to beat back the coronavirus pandemic. Mizoram has quarantined 140 people including some having travel history abroad.

The first coronavirus positive case to be reported from the northeastern states came from Manipur. It was a 23-year-old student who returned from the United Kingdom.

Dr Thiamsanga said that the Mizoram government has constituted a medical operations team, headed by him, to fight the coronavirus spread in the state.

The team would work in two groups: a medical team and an ICU team.

The state has already asked the central government to facilitate supply of at least 13,000 pieces of personal protective gear for medical teams.

Dr Thiamsanga asked people to refrain from buying chloroquine phosphate, hydroxy chloroquinine, azithromycin without proper advice and prescription by a doctor.

The government has nominated Mizoram’s lone medical college, the Zoram Medical College (ZMC), as a treatment, quarantine and isolation centre for coronavirus infected patients.

Dr Thiamsanga said the state government has formed a committee headed by health secretary H Lalengmawia to expedite installation of a virology laboratory at ZMC to test suspected cases.