Returnees reducing, traced contacts increasing

October 4, 2020 59 Views No Comment

Testing rate improves to 40 per 1000, recovery rate 81 percent

Morung Express News
Dimapur | October 3

September recorded “almost equal number of cases as August even with fewer testing,” observed the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Department of Health & Family Welfare, in its weekly COVID-19 trend report.

The latest report, published on October 3, citing the trend observed over the past few months, stated that the monthly positivity rate increased from 2.6 percent in May to 11.7 in September.

Nagaland reported 2,213 cases in September out of 18,847 tests. In August, it was 2,257 cases out of 22,970 tests. The perceptible drop in the number of tests was attributed “partly to do with revision in discharge policy and testing of returnees/travellers, where rational testing based on current scientific evidences as prescribed by ICMR has been adopted.”

The overall positivity rate stood at 7.8 percent, while the positivity rate for the past week was 12 percent, up from the 10 percent recorded in between September 19-25.

A total of 4,427 samples were tested during the past week, out of which 550 (armed forces- 296, traced contacts- 203, returnees/travelers- 41, frontliners- 10) were confirmed positive. It was 411 each during the preceding two weeks.

As on October 3, Nagaland has conducted a cumulative 81,538 tests.

The proportion of positive traced contacts increased to 23 percent from 22 percent, while active symptomatic cases increased to 3 percent from 2 percent last week.

The testing rate improved to 40 per thousand population, from 37.58 last week and the recovery rate was at 81.69 percent against the national average of 83.70 percent.

Case distribution
627 of the active cases, as on October 2, were in COVID Care Centres, 277 in military establishments, 136 in home isolation and 45 in COVID hospitals.

6.6% of the total confirmed cases have been put in home isolation, till date.

Dimapur made up for 51 percent of the total confirmed cases in the state with 3,215 cases, followed by Kohima with 1,956 cases (31 percent). Peren was in third with 407 cases (6 percent).

The median age of the total confirmed cases was tipped at 32 years, with the youngest being a one-month old newborn and the oldest, a 93 year-old. 19 of the total cases were reported with co-morbid conditions.

Traced contacts
Positive traced contacts (23 percent), as a category, was neck to neck with returnees (24 percent) in terms of case contribution to the statewide total. The armed forces, including ‘returnee’ Nagaland Police personnel, continued to remain as the single largest contributor at 48 percent and frontline workers at 5 percent.

Household contacts (31 percent) and government employees (31 percent) together constituted 62 percent of all positive traced contacts. “Most people were infected within the same household and in work places. Implementing safety practices in work places is of top priority.”

The report further pointed out that 71 percent of all positive traced contacts are below 40 years of age, including students (18 percent). It cautioned, “What starts in the young doesn’t stay among the young. Many countries reported that young adult infections were followed weeks later by infections in people over 60 years. The sooner we recognize that, the sooner we can move forward safely.”

As on October 2, a total of 24,812 contacts have been traced by surveillance teams, including 9,868 primary contacts.