87 percent of deaths in wave 2 did not receive second dose
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 13
The weekly COVID-19 count in Nagaland continued to drop with 68 new cases reported for the period November 6-12. It happened to be the second lowest 7-day tally since April 3-9 when the state reported 27, after which cases began to soar marking the arrival of the deathly second wave.
Dimapur accounted for 44 of the new cases, followed by 12 in Kohima, 5 in Mokokchung, 2 each in Peren and Kiphire and 1 each in Wokha, Phek and Zunheboto. Not a single new case was reported from Mon, Longleng and Tuensang.
The state branch of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), in its weekly COVID roundup, released on November 13, noted that the weekly sample positivity rate has remained below 5 percent for the last 13 weeks. The positivity for the past 7 days (November 6-12) was 1.8 percent.
There were 3 new confirmed COVID deaths— 2 in Dimapur and 1 in Mokokchung. There was one death in Dimapur which was described as “non-COVID death.” The IDSP stated that Nagaland has recorded 4.4 COVID deaths a week over the last 5 weeks.
Despite the marked drop in mortality, Nagaland’s Case Fatality Rate remained higher than the global (2.02 percent) and national (2.11 percent) average.
There were 19 new cases of hospitalisation of COVID patients— 11 in Dimapur, 6 in Kohima and 2 in Mokokchung.
Recoveries: The total recoveries from COVID was 78 with 41 patients recovering in Dimapur, 22 in Kohima, 5 each in Mokokchung and Phek, 3 in Wokha, 1 each in Peren and Zunheboto. No recovery was reported from Mon, Kiphire, Longleng and Tuensang.
Vaccine Hesitancy: The pace of vaccination further dipped with only 16,189 doses administered over the past 7 days. The total number of doses increased to 12,34,129 with the IDSP data stating that 5,17,160 people out of the total figure have received the second dose. Kiphire, Phek, Peren, Tuensang and Wokha has the distinction of being the “least vaccinated districts.”
Terming the second wave as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” the IDSP clarified, “Out of 595 deaths in the second wave, 87 percent did not receive a 2nd dose. Only 1.5 percent was fully vaccinated.” It added that among the 12 deaths, who had received the 2nd dose, only 9 were fully vaccinated. As per the existing practice, a person is considered “fully vaccinated” 2 weeks after the second dose.
Further, 74 percent of the 19,773 positive cases reported in the state “in the second wave did not receive even a single dose.”
Breakthrough infections have been there but the IDSP reiterated that it is expected in the Delta variant but the vaccine greatly reduces the odds of severe illness or death. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA, “Breakthrough infections are those testing positive two weeks after the 2nd dose.”
AEFI: “An adverse event following immunization (AEFI) is any untoward medical occurrence which follows immunization, and which does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine,” the IDSP further clarified.
It maintained that to ensure safety of vaccines and capture any rare/ serious AEFIs, “AEFI mechanism is implemented strictly in any vaccination program across the world. AEFI can be any event which may or may not (coincidental) be related to the vaccine. Minor AEFIs like fever, Pain, body pain are expected in some after vaccination.”
According to the IDSP, the investigation of 3 AEFI cases, which were reported in Nagaland were “found to be due to pre-existing conditions and not related to the vaccine.”
