Morung Express News
Dimapur | August 21
For the second consecutive week, the COVID-19 positivity rate in Nagaland has remained below 5 percent. The state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s (IDSP) weekly COVID roundup, released on August 21, tipped the positivity rate for the week (August 14-20) at 4 percent, lower than the previous week’s 4.5 percent.
It added that the country’s weekly positivity rate has remained below 3 percent for the last 56 days and currently at 1.93 percent.
District-wise, only Kohima (10 percent) and Mokokchung (9 percent) reported a weekly positivity rate of more than 5 percent. It further dropped to 4 percent in Dimapur and Kohima.
The tally for the week was 446, the lowest weekly caseload in 6 months. 258 were detected through self/random test, 122 traced contacts, 25 frontline workers, 23 security forces personnel and 18 travellers.
Moreover, 727 COVID patients recovered across the state. The last time when recoveries outnumbered detection was July 3-9. Dimapur reported the most recoveries at 216, followed by Kohima- 174, Mokokchung- 99, Peren- 70, Tuensang- 62, Zunheboto- 33, Wokha- 25, Longleng- 24, Phek- 13, Mon- 7 and 4 in Kiphire.
There were also 15 COVID deaths — Kohima-7, Dimapur-7 and Mokokchung-1— during the week and as many as 76 COVID patients were admitted to hospitals. The IDSP added that in 2021, maximum deaths (33 percent) have been observed in the 46-60 years age group.
Conversely, the most number of cases have been detected in the 21-30 years age group this year. In 2020, the 31-40 years age group accounted for 34 percent of the cases.
The IDSP further informed, “The number of new cases has been increasing globally in the last two months with maximum weekly increase observed from the Western Pacific region and the Americas. More than 4.4 million Covid-19 deaths have been reported as of date.
Vaccination status
A total of 8.27 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the state, as on August 20. As per the data, only 14 percent of the targeted 12,50,645 eligible beneficiaries have been fully vaccinated. Dimapur, Kohima, Longleng, Mokokchung and Mon are the top 5 districts with the highest coverage.
According to the official Nagaland COVID dashboard, out of the 7,96,118 eligible beneficiaries under the 18-44 years age group, only 13,562 (1.7 percent) have received their second dose till August 20. The number of beneficiaries in that age group who received their first dose was 3,78,211 (48 percent).
Overall, the vaccination rate (2nd dose) among Frontline Workers (FLWs) and Healthcare workers (HCWs) was higher with 54% and 51% respectively, as compared to those in the 45 years and above category which showed 24% as having received their second dose of the vaccine.
India has administered 57.61 crore doses in total, as on August 20.
The IDSP further informed that ZyCoV-D manufactured by Zydus has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India for use in 12-18 years age group after reviewing safety and immunogenicity data. It said, “ZyCoV-D is a Plasmid DNA vaccine which will be administered intradermally by the PharmaJet needle free system in three doses at 0, 28 and 56 days.”
72 new COVID cases today
Meanwhile, a total of 72 samples out of 1,834 tested positive for COVID-19 in Nagaland on August 21, indicating a sample positivity rate of 3.93%.
According to the daily bulletin, Kohima reported the highest number of fresh positives on Saturday with 34 testing positive out of 261 samples (13.03 percent positivity rate). Dimapur accounted for 25 new cases while the remaining cases were from Mokokchung (6), Peren (2), Phek (3), Tuensang (1) and Wokha (1).
With the new cases, the State’s caseload increased to 29,554.
Meanwhile, with 108 new recoveries, the tally of recovery in the State increased to 27,099.
The recoveries were reported from Dimapur (33), Kohima (36), Mokokchung (15), Peren (3) Tuensang (9) and Wokha (5).
No COVID-19 death was reported on Saturday and the death toll in the State remained at 595. Further, 14 more deaths have been categorized as nor-COVID related in the bulletin.
There are 994 active COVID-19 cases in the State at present, out of which, 84 are admitted in COVID hospitals and 742 are under home isolation.
