Manipur: 1st COVID-19 Patient Recovering at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences

Imphal, March 25, 2020:

A 23-year-old girl from Imphal West district in Manipur, who tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday, is showing signs of improvement following administration of hydroxychloroquine as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, said sources.

The patient, who is undergoing treatment at Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) isolation ward, is feeling better after the medication approved by ICMR, a local news daily quoted Manipur health minister L Jayantakumar Singh as saying.

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The girl, who recently returned to the state from London in the UK, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, making her the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the state and northeast India.

Moreover, following the reports of the confirmed case of COVID-19, the state government is now making all efforts to trace down her contacts and the co-passengers to prevent further spread of the deadly coronavirus. The girl along with her brother, who had also returned from Atlanta, US, had arrived at the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal on March 21 on an AirAsia flight. Altogether, there were 160 passengers on the flight from Kolkata to Imphal via Agartala, as per reports.

On Tuesday, health director Dr K Rajo Singh had appealed to the people, especially those who had come in contact with the girl after she returned from London, to inform to the designated health centres and start self-isolation immediately.

So far, the Manipur state officials have been able to trace down or reach out to almost all the co-passengers and those who have come in close contact with the girl.

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Those contacts of whom the officials could connected have already starting self-isolation in their various districts designated health centres as a precautionary measure, the sources said.

Some co-passengers of the girl couldn’t be traced yet since while booking the tickets, airlines normally ask only for contact numbers of the intended passengers and not the residential addresses, the sources added.

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