Lockdown likely if uncontrolled spread continues

October 25, 2020 80 Views No Comment

DIMAPUR, OCT 24 (NPN) : With Nagaland’s sample positivity rate at 9% being higher than the national average, the Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) department has again expressed serious concern over the “uncontrolled spread” of COVID-19 infection in the state.

Pointing out that the next three winter months was critical for the state in determining the fate of this pandemic, the department warned that total lockdowns could be imposed again in the event of an uncontrolled spread.

“This is a crucial time for the state to enforce all SOPs strictly and immediately”, it added

The department stated that the sample positivity rate of the State was higher than the national average at 9%. It said that the weekly sample positivity rate had increased rapidly from 4% in the last week of August to 18% this week (highest till date).

Dimapur district was the worst hit as more than half of the cases were in Dimapur (54%) followed by Kohima (30%), it added. The percentage of traced contacts, in the State, among confirmed cases have also increased from 7% in July to 56% as of this week, the department said.

In its weekly bulletin issued on October 24, the department revealed that the increasing positivity among patients attending flu clinics in hospitals was worrying. It said most of them did not have travel history or known contact with a positive case– an indication of community transmission.

It may be recalled that the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on October 18 admitted that India was in the community transmission stage. However, he added that it was limited only to certain districts and states. “We continue to see uncontrolled spread in closed settings like offices, restaurants, bakeries, religious communities, increasing risk elsewhere,” H&FW stated on Saturday.

In its report last week, the department had warned of uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 in Nagaland, which could lead to a shift towards community transmission. According to the department, this has increased the risk of spread in the community, adding “these are settings where super spreader events happen.”

The department had said that normally one COVID-19 case can infect only one or two people, but super-spreader events occur where more than 10 to 15 cases or even hundreds are infected in a single event. Super-spreader events will easily lead to community transmission.

3 deaths reported: Meanwhile, three COVID related deaths were reported on Saturday from three districts.

According to reports, Wokha reported its first COVID related death. Health officials said that the deceased was a 40-year-old person.

Further, two deaths- one each in Dimapur and Kohima- were reported on Saturday. The cases were under investigation, an official said.

According to Health department’s data, the state has so far reported 32 deaths (6 not COVID related and 2 under investigation, excluding the 2 cases reported on Saturday). All COVID-19 deaths are certified by the state death committee as per ICMR and WHO ICD 10 guideline.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), community transmission is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases. In other words, community transmission is when there is no clear source of origin of the infection in a community. It happens when you can no longer identify who became infected after being exposed to someone who interacted with people from the other infected communities.

Nagaland COVID-19 tally now 8515

Nagaland on Saturday reported 79 new COVID-19 positive cases– 44 in Dimapur, 23 in Kohima, 5 in Tuensang, 4 in Zunheboto, 2 in Mon and 1 in Kiphire, taking the tally to at 8,515.

Further, out of 8,515 positive cases, the distribution across various categories of people include 3771 cases from the armed forces/police, 1631 returnees, 2713 traced contacts and 400 frontline workers.

Meanwhile, India’s COVID-19 tally climbed to 78,14,682 lakh with 53,370 fresh cases in a day, while 70,16,046 people have so far recuperated pushing the national recovery rate to 89.78% on Saturday, the Union health ministry said.

The death toll stood at 1,17,956, with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 650 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country.

Source: http://www.nagalandpost.com/lockdown-likely-if-uncontrolled-spread-continues/223675.html