COVID-19: After a ‘lull,’ Nagaland records second-highest daily spike

September 11, 2020 83 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 10

After a relative decline in number of COVID-19 daily cases from second-half of August, Nagaland is witnessing a new spike in the last two days.

On September 10, the State recorded the second-highest single-day spike of 261 cases taking the total COVID-19 tally to 4636.

“261 new +ve cases of COVID-19 have been detected out of 741 samples tested,” State Health and Family Welfare S Pangnyu Phom updated on Twitter.

Out of this, 197 were from Dimapur, 59 from Kohima and 5 from Mokokchung, he said, adding that necessary contact tracing have been activated.

For the second consecutive day, the cases were over 100, after a ‘lull’ for nearly a month and hovering below the threshold from August 15 – September 8. On Wednesday, 130 new cases were reported. On August 4, the State recorded the highest one-day spike with 276 cases.

According to Nagaland COVID-19 Bulletin, as of September 10, out of 4636 cases, there were only 834 active cases.
A total of 3781 have recovered denoting a high recovery rate of 81.55%.

Officially the State has recorded 8 deaths while two fatalities are designated as “COVID-19 positive but not due to COVID-19.”

11 cases have “Migrated” from the Nagaland.

Dimapur remained at the top of the list with the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases among the districts with 2302 cases. Other districts in the top bracket were Kohima with 1476 cases followed by 298 in Mon and 286 in Peren.

173 returning NP personnel test COVID positive

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 10

After almost a month of reporting relatively low daily COVID-19 cases, Nagaland has witnessed a sharp surge in cases on September 9 and 10. On September 9, Nagaland reported 130 cases, the first since August 14 when the state last registered 3-digit figures (156 cases) in a day. It was followed up with 261 cases today.

Accounting for over 40 percent of the total cases, the initial surge in cases was largely attributed to the armed forces. A significant drop in daily reported cases was affected after the Nagaland government and the armed forces reportedly came to an understanding, in early August, for the latter to temporarily put a plug on fresh arrival of troops or rescheduling arrivals till September.

Since then, there has been a steady decline in cases and the month of August reported on average 25 cases a day.

Now, the current surge has been attributed to the Nagaland Police (NP) personnel returning to the state after deployment in West Bengal.

According to the Health Department, 173 out of the 391 positive cases reported on September 9 and 10 were NP personnel, who have returned after serving in Purulia, West Bengal. It included 41 on September 9 and 132 on September 10.

An official said that more cases from the NP unit is expected in the coming days but added that there should be no cause for panic as preventive protocol was applied. “There should be no cause for panic because they are being secluded like the armed forces personnel. Plus they are all placed in Ganeshnagar (Quarantine Centre),” said the official.

Meanwhile, it was informed that the temporary stop to arrival of armed forces personnel is still in effect.