With the detection of five more positive cases on Wednesday, the number of Covid-19 infected persons in Nagaland has shot up to nine.

Health and family welfare minister S. Pangnyu Phom said this in his official Twitter handle. “Another 5 more returnees from Chennai tested COVID19 +ve this morning; 4 from Dimapur and 1 from Kohima. With this, we have 9 active cases in Nagaland,” Phom tweeted.

They were all undergoing treatment at Covid-19 hospitals in Dimapur and Kohima, he added.

All the nine positive people are among 1,463 people who returned to the state from Chennai in a Shramik Special train on Friday.

Altogether 3,982 stranded people have returned to the state from various parts of India till Tuesday.

Principal secretary (home) Abhijit Sinha said the state government was arranging various modes of transport to bring back the stranded people from various states by June 1.

He said special trains were being arranged from Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and special buses from Bengal, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Daman & Diu and Lucknow.

Sinha added that 370 people had left for Nagaland from Jaipur by a special train on Tuesday. They are expected to reach Lumding in Assam on Thursday morning. The state government will ferry them from Lumding to Dimapur by bus.

Ravi reviews preparedness: On Wednesday, Nagaland governor R.N. Ravi reviewed preparedness of the state government in tackling the Covid-19 situation. Senior officials, including chief secretary Temjen Toy and additional chief secretary Sentiyanger Imchen, were present in the meeting.

Ravi stressed the need for rigorous contact tracing of all those who came in contact with Covid-19 positive patients and quarantining them either at home or institutions depending on their health symptoms.

He underscored the need for more bio-safety laboratories in the state.