<span style="color: #222222;">Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan today held a video conference to review the COVID management strategies and actions taken in the eight North Eastern States. It  was attended by the Principal Secretaries, Health Secretaries and other State representatives from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.<br />'' <br />'' These eight North Eastern States together account for less than five per cent of the total active cases in the country. The Health Secretary highlighted the need for continued enforcement of containment measures, increase in testing, and effective case management of patients in the hospitals.<br />'' <br />'' The Secretaries and representatives from the States shared an in-depth analysis on the current status of COVID-19 in these 8 States, covering aspects of containment. They also shared their detailed roadmaps and action plans for the next one month.<br />'' <br />'' During the meeting, the States were advised to take steps on specific areas. They include limiting the spread of the infection by implementing stringent containment measures, active house-to-house case search, early identification by ramping up testing  and full utilization of RT-PCR testing capacity. It also includes effective monitoring of home isolation cases and early hospitalization in case of disease progression and keeping the mortality rate to one per cent or less.<br />''<br />''The Secretaries and other functionaries were urged to continue their efforts to manage the pandemic with the same rigor.</span>