Northeast on maximum alert after first positive coronavirus case in Manipur

Guwahati: Northeast India was put on maximum alert after the first positive case of coronavirus in the region was reported from Manipur.

Health authorities are tracing the people who came in contact with the person, who stayed in Kolkata and Imphal.

“One 23-year-old Manipuri person returning from the UK tested positive on Tuesday,” Manipur Director of Health services K Rajo Singh said.


One person who recently returned from China was arrested in Assam’s Hailakandi district for having hidden his travel history. The person has been quarantined and an FIR has been filed against him and his father.

Meanwhile, tea estates in Assam will shut down until March 31, it was decided after the Consultative Committee of Plantation Associations (CCPA), an umbrella organisation of tea producer associations, held a video conference on Tuesday. According to Bidyananda Barkakoty, adviser with the North Eastern Tea Association, the tea garden lockdown is inevitable as per the government’s directives.

Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Centre had suggested that the state impose a curfew because a lockdown from Tuesday had not proved to be effective in some states, including Punjab.