Itanagar: Pangi, a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang district, has turned into a COVID-19 hotspot after 28 inhabitants of the hamlet tested positive for the virus in the past 4 days.
Following reports of possible infections, a medical team from the Yembung Primary Health Centre (PHC), was rushed to the village on July 16 to carry out random antigen tests following which 20 villagers tested positive for COVID-19, according to sources.
The isolated village of Pangi is around 30-35 km away from Pangin, the headquarters of the Siang district. As the village does not have an all-weather road, the health officials had to trek for at least 2-3 hours to reach the hamlet.
Yembung PHC medical officer-in-charge Dr Kapang Ering said 20 persons, including five children, tested positive for Covid-19 in the village during the random rapid antigen tests conducted on July 16.
“Out of the 20 positive cases, an elderly man had become quite serious and was referred to the Covid Care Centre at Pasighat in East Siang district,” Dr Ering said.
A separate medical team from the Yembung PHC reached Pangi on Tuesday to carry out more random rapid antigen tests, during which eight more people tested positive for the virus. Out of the eight, two were minors and one a medical staff who was part of the medical entourage to the village on July 16.
Sources said all the patients have been asked to stay in strict home isolation, and the Siang district has declared the entire village a containment zone.
Arunachal Pradesh reported its highest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as 508 people tested positive for the virus. There are 4,260 active cases in the state, while 38,865 have recovered from the virus so far. The death toll in the frontier state stands at 203.
