Guwahati/Imphal/Agartala, The surge of Covid-19 continues unabated in four of the eight northeastern states with Assam recording the highest tally of over 850 cases, with 82 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, officials said on Thursday night.

According to health officials in Guwahati, of Assam's 33 districts, Kamrup Metro (282) and Golaghat (143) account for 425 out of the state's total of 856 cases till Thursday night.

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a tweet, on Thursday night, said: "Glad to share that 16 patients have been discharged today (Thursday) after being tested COVID-19 negative twice."

According to the minister, the total number of patients being treated in various hospitals and medical colleges is 746 while 103 people recovered from the disease while four died and three migrated to other states.

Sarma, Chief Ministers, and health ministers of other northeastern states said that after inter-state movement through road and rail networks was allowed and various restrictions lifted by the Union Home Ministry on May 4, the region, especially Assam, witnessed a massive spike in coronavirus cases.

According to official estimation, little over one lakh natives returned to the eight northeastern states with Assam alone registering the arrival of over 60,000 residents during the past three weeks.

In Tripura, with the latest 10 cases, total cases rose to 242, including 162 Border Security Force troopers, officers, and their family members. However, the state's active cases are 72 and three cases migrated to other states.

Manipur is now in the third position in the northeast in terms of Covid-19 cases. With 11 new cases on Thursday, including two women, total positive cases increased to 55, with 50 of them active.

Nagaland reported nine more cases on Thursday, taking the total number of people infected by coronavirus in the state to 18. State Health Minister S. Pangnyu Phom said that 1,328 residents of the state returned from Chennai by a Shramik Special train on May 22 and 18 of the passengers tested positive so far.

Arunachal Pradesh has reported one more case, taking the tally to three, with two of them active cases.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, in a tweet, said that another person, who had travelled from Haryana, has turned out to be positive on Thursday night. With thenew case, total positive cases in Meghalaya have risen to 21, with eight of them active and one death.