Nagaland reports lowest weekly COVID count

March 21, 2021 35 Views No Comment

Only 4 cases reported this week

Morung Express News
Dimapur | March 20

Nagaland reported by far the lowest weekly COVID-19 tally since the first officially confirmed cases were reported on May 25, 2020. Only 4 cases were detected during the week (March 13-19), as per the weekly COVID roundup issued by the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) on March 20.

Two were traced contacts and the other two were armed forces personnel.

These were detected from 1284 samples, returning a positivity rate of 0.3 percent for the week. The overall positivity rate reduced from the previous week’s 9.2 percent to 9.1 percent. District-wise, Dimapur, Kohima and Peren and Zunheboto have the highest positivity at 11.9, 10, 8.4 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively. It is however to be noted that Peren and Zunheboto have not reported any cases in weeks. The positivity rate in the remaining districts was below 5.

In terms of sample testing, the state was testing on average 66 per thousand population. It was 140 per thousand in Dimapur and Kohima, 60 per thousand in Peren and 16 per thousand in Zunheboto.

No new COVID fatality was reported during the week.

Meanwhile, the IDSP informed that the country have witnessed a spike in cases over the past 4 weeks. It said, “70 districts in the country witnessed 150 % increase in cases as cases spread to smaller towns and cities. Maximum cases are reported from Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.”

Citing data by Bloomberg, it said, “After 6 weeks of declining cases in January and February, there is an increasing trend in cases globally for four consecutive weeks.”

“According to WHO situation report, a 10 % increase in cases have been observed for the past week. However, deaths have continued to decline despite increase in cases. Brazil, USA, Italy, France and India reported the maximum cases.”

Vaccination
The IDSP informed that 13,327 people were vaccinated during the past week. As on March 20, a total of 67,914 vaccines have been administered. The total was inclusive of the second dose administered to health care and frontline workers.

It further clarified doubt and rumour surrounding the Astrazeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India.

It said, “Investigation by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) has found that there is no link between the small number of blood clots cases (37 cases out of 20 million) reported and the Astrazeneca Vaccine.”

It quoted the EMA, “The committee has come to a clear scientific conclusion. This is a safe and effective vaccine. Its benefits in protecting people from COVID-19 with the associated risks of death and hospitalization outweigh the possible risks. The committee also concluded that the vaccine is not associated with an increase in the overall risk of thromboembolic events or blood clots.’’

Source: https://morungexpress.com/nagaland-reports-lowest-weekly-covid-count