42 % sample positivity rate for November 16
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 16
A day after the Nagaland Civil Secretariat, Kohima was temporarily sealed, more public establishments were shut down in Dimapur, Kohima and Peren on November 16, following the detection of COVID-19 cases. 
In Dimapur, the offices sealed included the Geological Survey of India at Riverbelt colony, Post Office (NE-II Region) and NPF office at Landmark colony. In Kohima, Directorate of Information & Public Relations (DIPR) was sealed, while in Peren, the headquarters of the 9th NAP (IR) at Saijang was sealed.
As per the orders issued by the respective Dimapur and Peren district administration, the aforementioned establishments have been sealed for a period of 48 hours with effect from November 16.
The order informing of the sealing of the police base prohibited the movement of any person or vehicle in the sealed area with effect from the date of sealing.
The DIPR informed in a separate press release that its office will remain sealed till 2:30pm, November 18, 2020 during which fumigation of the premises will be done and aggressive contact tracing initiated.
132 cops tests positive
The 9th NAP (IR) headquarters in Peren was sealed after 132 of its personnel tested COVID-19 positive on November 16. According to Health officials, the police personnel recently returned to Nagaland after deployment in the Bihar state Assembly elections.
“They reached about a week back and the tests were done today. They are quarantined in the barracks and asymptomatic,” stated one health official.
He also clarified that while the order from the district administration cited the positive tally as 133, the actual figure was 132. This was out of 625 samples collected and tested at the unit’s headquarters today.
“Actually, we are relieved because we were expecting higher case load,” he added. The sample positivity rate worked out 21.6 percent.
While stating that all the personnel, who have so far reported to headquarters, were tested on November 16, he said that a few personnel were on the way to the unit headquarters to report for tests.
The figure from Peren was not reflected in the daily COVID bulletin issued by the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) on November 16 as the results arrived in the evening after the 2:00pm deadline to compile and send daily reports to H&FW Directorate in Kohima.
Meanwhile, the daily sample positivity rate for the state has consistently hovered in the double digit figures for 3 consecutive days. On November 14, it worked out to 35.7 percent (112 out of 313 samples), on November 15, it fell to 18.4 percent (135 out of 732), only to rocket to 42.6 percent (140 out of 328) on November 16.
