Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 18
The COVID-19 caseload continued to dip in Nagaland with the state reporting the lowest number of new cases in a week (September 11-17) since the second wave peaked in May-June. However, there was a marked increase in deaths in one district during the week.
As per the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s (IDSP) weekly COVID roundup, released on September 18, Nagaland recorded 225 new cases and 18 deaths.
16 of the deaths occurred in Dimapur alone, the highest COVID fatalities reported from the district in a week since the first week of June. The other two deaths occurred in Kohima.
The high fatality in the district was attributed to low vaccination coverage and large number of undetected cases in the population. Of the 567 deaths recorded in the state since March this year, 508 were found to have not received even a single dose.
It added, “Death rate among pregnant women is found to be higher than the general population at 10.3 percent. Nine COVID-19 deaths have been reported among pregnant women and none of them had been vaccinated. Vaccination for pregnant women is highly advised.”
With 99 percent of COVID deaths/victims found to have not been “fully vaccinated,” it added, “The second wave has affected mostly the unvaccinated. Reduction of deaths in the subsequent waves will mostly depend on the vaccination coverage.”
At 2 percent, Nagaland has the highest death rate in the northeast region, followed by Meghalaya (1.7 percent) and Manipur (1.5 percent).
The weekly hospital admissions dropped to 47 with Dimapur accounting for 29 admissions.
Detection rate
In terms of case detection, the sample positivity rate has remained below 5 percent in the state for the 5th week. The week’s 225 cases were detected from 12,124 samples returning a positivity rate of 1.9 percent.
The IDSP informed, “The current weekly (September 11-17) sample positivity of 1.9 percent is the same as the national weekly positivity rate. All districts have maintained a positivity rate of less than 5 percent. Four districts returned positivity rate of 2-plus percent— Phek (3.8 percent), Dimapur (3.2 percent), Wokha (2.8 percent) and Kohima (2.1 percent).
It however cautioned that the number of reported cases could be much lesser than the actual cases “due to hesitancy in testing, reporting of self-tests/COVISELF and false negative cases from rapid antigen tests.”
Get the vaccine
The vaccine coverage in the state increased to 9.67 lakhs with 46,296 doses administered during the week. The total of eligible beneficiaries, who have received the second dose rose 2,91,478.
However, Nagaland has the distinction of being among three states in the northeast with sluggish vaccine coverage. According to the IDSP, “Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur are the least vaccinated states in the Northeast. These states also have the highest COVID-19 mortality rate.”
While stating that the second dose is critical to ensure maximum protection, it quoted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA, “COVID-19 Vaccines reduces hospitalization by more than 25 times.”
Clearing the apprehension with regard to “breakthrough infections” or positivity among fully vaccinated individuals, it said that such isolated cases constitute only 9 percent of all positive cases detected since March 2021 as opposed to 76 percent of positive cases, who were found to be unvaccinated. The total positive cases in the state since March till date were 18,580.
“Breakthrough infections are those whose samples are positive two weeks after the second dose.”
Recoveries
The state also reported 371 recoveries during the week. It happened to be the fifth consecutive week since recoveries outnumbered detection. Dimapur reported 180 recoveries, Kohima- 61, Mokokchung- 44, Mon- 38, Phek- 26, Peren- 9, Longleng and Zunheboto- 4 each, Kiphire- 3 and Wokha and Tuensang- 1 each.
