Swab samples of 31 persons outof 60, who had travelled with a COVID-19 positive man from Delhi in buses, have tested negative in Arunachal Pradesh, a senior health official said on Monday.The result of 26 samples is awaited and samples of three more persons will be examined, the official said.Arunachal Pradesh, which was declared COVID-19 free over a month ago, reported a fresh case on Sunday as a 30- year-old student who returned with them from Delhi tested positive.The student, who used to live in West Patel Nagar area of Delhi, has been kept at a dedicated covid care centre (DCCC) as per standard operating procedure, Health secretary P Parthiban said.Sixty-one passengers had reached the state on May 18 from Delhi in two buses travelling through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.The 60 other passengers are not showing COVID-19 symptoms till date, State Nodal Officer for COVID-19 Lobsang Jampa said.As on Monday, as many as 5,428 swab samples were tested out of which 4,557 were found to be negative while results of 868 are awaited.Reacting to a report that three returnees from Maharashtra had tested positive for COVID-19, which went viral on social media, Jampa termed it as "fake news".RT-PCR tests were conducted on the three persons and the results were negative.Jampa said, anyone found spreading such fake news is liable to face imprisonment of one year under the Disaster Management Act, 2005."I request the people not to panic and avoid sharing such information with others," Jampa said.The nodal officer further said that the health department has been issuing bulletins on a daily basis."If anyone is found infected with the virus, the people will be duly informed," he added.Of the 11,000 people who had registered online for returning to the northeastern state from across the country, 5,600 have reached Arunachal Pradesh.
