Moa Jamir
The latest weekly COVID-19 bulletin issued by Nagaland’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) had both good news and bad news for its citizens. 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, The Morung Express reported on September 19, citing the IDSP bulletin.
However, fatalities from the COVID-19 doubled from 8 last week to 18 this week, with 16 of the deaths occurring in Dimapur alone.
The Department of Health and Family Welfare stressed that the “high fatality rate is due to low vaccination coverage and large number of undetected cases in the population.”
While the State reported only 225 cases during the aforesaid week, the department itself admitted that the “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.”
As reported, of the 567 deaths recorded in the state since March this year, 508 (90%) were found to have not received even a single dose while 560 (99%) were not fully vaccinated. Death among fully vaccinated is just 1% (7).
Further, the bulletin informed that at 2%, Nagaland has the highest death rate in the north east region, followed by Meghalaya (1.7%) and Manipur (1.5 %). Incidentally, 1st dose vaccination coverage as a percentage of eligible beneficiaries are lowest in these three states at 54%, 49%, and 62%, respectively.
What inferences can be drawn from the given raw data? At the outset, it implies that vaccination saves, while hesitancy through various reasons can imperil the lives of the citizens.
“The impact of the second wave was overwhelmingly among the unvaccinated and the same is expected in the third wave. Reducing deaths in the third wave will need high vaccination coverage immediately before it hits the state,” the bulletin stated.
Such outcomes are verifiable elsewhere. For instance, the United States’ Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) citing three recent studies last week informed that those getting both doses of vaccines were 11 times less likely to die of COVID-19 and 10 times less likely to be hospitalised, compared to the unvaccinated.
“All the vaccines currently available in India and elsewhere are over 90-95% effective for protecting the beneficiary from severe disease and death. This is true for all the variants including the Delta virus. Most of the infection occurring in India today is due to Delta virus,” the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated on September 9. News reports, citing 4 months data by the Ministry put the effectiveness of one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine against death is 96.6 % and with both shots 97.5%
Likewise, the National Health Service of the United Kingdom citing research stated that the vaccines help in reducing the risk of getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19; reduce the risk of catching or spreading and protect against variants.
Accordingly, apart from ideological, religious and other motives put forward by those against vaccination, science, as well as the relevant health authorities across the world, are clear on the benefits of vaccinations. So if you are unvaccinated, think twice.
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