A 77-year-old man from Manipur’s Chandel district become the sixth person to lose the fight against COVID-19 in the state, official sources said on Saturday.

Confirming this, Dr Kh Sasheekumar, additional director and spokesperson of the health department in a press release on Saturday night said that person expired at CMC Koirengei on Friday due to COVID 19.

“He was suffering from T2 Diabetes mellitus and hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” the press release added.

With his expiry, the cumulative number of deaths relating to COVID 19 in the state reached 6.

It may be mentioned here that the first-ever death case relating to COVID-19 in Manipur was reported on July 29.

Meanwhile, with 55 new cases, the total number of positive cases for COVID 19 in Manipur reached 2,756 while the total active and recovered cases stand at 1051 and 1699, the release said.

The 55 news cases which include 12 females were confirmed at Virus Research & Diagnosis Laboratories of Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS-12), Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS-27), Babina diagnostic centre(14)and district hospitals of Bishnupur(1) and Tamenglong(1) in last 24 hours, the release added. They are from districts of Imphal East(1), Imphal West (12), Bishnupur (4), Kakching (2), Kangpokp (1), Thoubal (3), Tengnoupal (2), Tamenglong (1) and Ukhrul(1).

“In the past 24 hours, 10 persons were discharged from COVID care centres at COVID care facilities of RIMS(1), Meitram in Imphal West (2), Ukhrul(3), Thoubal(3) and Kasom Khullen(1) after they were found COVID 19 free RT PCR test,” the release added.

So far 85,441 persons were tested for COVID 19 in Manipur while 3,19,825 others were screened for the disease at various entry points of the state, according to official sources.

Till date, 60,577 individuals have completed quarantine while more than 3000 are still in quarantine.

Sobhapati Samom is Northeast Now Correspondent in Imphal. He can be reached at: [email protected]