2 Arunachal girls who sat beside Mizoram COVID-19 patient on

Two girls from Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, who sat next to the lone COVID-19 patient from Mizoram on a New Delhi-Guwahati flight, have tested negative for the disease, a senior health official said.

Their samples were sent to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for tests, Health Secretary P Parthiban said.

The Tawang district administration had placed the two girls under home isolation after they shared the flight with the 50-year-old COVID-19 patient on March 16.

The pastor from Mizoram, who recently returned from the Netherlands, is the second COVID-19 patient in the Northeast after a woman from Manipur who tested positive for the disease after her return from the United Kingdom.

Parthiban said that 12 persons have so far been tested for coronavirus in the state of which seven results have returned negative and the rest are awaited.