9 new COVID-19 cases in Arunachal Pradesh; tally rises to 16,753

Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh reported nine new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, pushing the total caseload in the state to 16,753, a senior health official said on Thursday. Three cases each were detected from the Capital Complex Region and East Siang, while one case each was also reported from Tawang, Lepa Rada and Changlang district respectively, the official said.

An Assam Rifles jawan is among the fresh cases, State Surveillance Officer (SSO) Dr Lobsang Jampa said. Barring two all the cases are asymptomatic, the official said, adding all the cases were detected through rapid antigen tests. However, no fresh recoveries were reported in the northeastern state on Wednesday, Dr Jampa said. He said that 16,609 people have recovered from the infection so far and the COVID-19 recovery rate in the state is 99.14 per cent. Arunachal Pradesh now has 88 active coronavirus cases, while 56 people have succumbed to the infection so far he said, adding that the fatality ratio is 0.33 per cent.

The Capital Complex region, comprising Itanagar, Naharlagun, Nirjuli and Banderdewa areas, has the highest number of active cases at 30, followed by Tawang (20), East Siang (12) and West Kameng (9). The state has so far tested 3,81,616 samples for COVID-19, including 602 on Wednesday, while the positivity rate stood at 0.52 per cent, Dr Jampa added.