50-year-old man tests positive for COVID -19 in Mizoram; second case in Northeast

Aizawl, Mar 25: A 50-year-old pastor, who recently returned from Amsterdam, tested positive for COVID-19 in Mizoram, making it the second case of the disease in the Northeast, Health Minister R Lalthangliana said on Wednesday.

The test report of the man, a resident of Aizawl, arrived on Tuesday night from the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), he said. "We received the test result late last night. It is an imported case and the patient is fine," Lalthangliana told reporters.

The health minister urged people not to panic after the state reported its first case. Eric Zomawia, the mission director of National Health Mission (NHM) here, said the patient was in the Netherlands for higher studies. He took a flight from Amsterdam to Doha and then reached Delhi. He then flew to Guwahati and from there took another flight to Aizawl. He arrived here on March 16, said Zomawia. State health department's principal director F Lallianhlira told PTI that the patient was put under home-quarantine soon after his arrival here.

The patient was having fever since March 18 but consulted a doctor only on March 22, following which his sample was sent to the GMCH for testing, Zomawia said.

The patient, his wife and two children have been admitted to the isolation ward at the Zoram Medical College (ZMC), about 16 km from Aizawl, soon after his results came in on Tuesday night, he added.

The state government is tracing the people he came in contact with and has advised his co-passengers on the Guwahati-Aizawl flight to go on self-quarantine, Zomawia said.

The health condition of the patient is improving and he is now stable, he said.