Nagaland: COVID-19 positivity rate inched higher in a week's time

Kohima: In a week, COVID-19 positivity rate has inched higher by over 1% in Nagaland. According to the latest weekly bulletin issued by the directorate of health and family welfare, the current positivity rate in Nagaland is 7.7% as compared to 6.4% last week.

The data shows that till Friday, a total of 69,050 samples have been tested. The testing rate per thousand is 34, which is below the national average of 41. The past week recorded a total of 529 cases with the highest single-day spike of 310 cases (164 from the armed forces) on Friday.

While many districts witnessed a slight increase in positivity rate, the positivity rate in Dimapur and Kohima recorded a higher rate. From 8% in the past week, Dimapur’s positivity rate increased to 10.1%. The positivity rate in Kohima inched higher to 9.1% as compared to 7.4% in the past week.

Positivity rate, the fraction of tests that return positive, is a crucial metric that reflects how widespread the virus is in the community.

Also Read: Nagaland: 118 fresh COVID-19 positive cases reported; 31 patients recover

As per the general categorization of cases of the total confirmed cases in comparison, 47% comprise the armed forces, 28% are returnees/travellers, 19% are traced contacts, and 6% are frontline workers. Among the frontline workers, the infection rate among the non-medical frontline workers is higher than the medical frontline workers.

In Nagaland, the most affected age group is 30-44 years (45%) and 15-29 years (37%) who could be significant spreaders of the virus. The median age in the state is 32 years, and the age range is from 1 month- 93 years.

According to the classification of positive traced contacts by occupation, maximum positive contacts are government employees with infection from workplaces with 34%. 22% of the professions of traced contacts are not known.

Students make up 18 % of the positive traced contacts, 12% are self-employed, 4% are drivers, 3% are senior citizens, 2% are unemployed, and 1% each is among patients and pre-schoolers.

The infection rate among the male is higher at 83 % as compared to the female at 17 %. Of the total confirmed cases, 0.34 % are cases with comorbidity. A total of 18,707 persons have been traced through contact tracing of which 6,337 are primary contacts.

Also Read: Nagaland police recover ganja worth approx Rs 15 lakh; 2 held

“We are at a crucial juncture in this fight against the pandemic. The State has relaxed many establishments in the Unlock-4 guidelines only for livelihood sustainability and economic reasons. The threat of the virus is more than ever now” the health and family welfare department appealed.

Making the appeal to the public, the department added “Every individual should strictly follow standard safety protocols to break the chain of transmission. Complacency at this juncture will prove to be very costly”.

Also Read: NSCN-K (Khango) expels gen secretary Isak Chishi, Newell Naga to take over

Meanwhile, as six more persons from the state has migrated outside on Saturday, thereby decreasing the number of active cases. The current COVID-19 status in Nagaland is:

Confirmed: 5,064

Active: 1,215

Recovered: 3,822

Death: 8

Migrated: 17

As per the severity of symptoms among the active current cases, a total of 1,207 COVID-19 patients are asymptomatic, four from Dimapur and one each from Kohima and Mokokchung are mild symptomatic, and one each from Dimapur and Kohima is moderate symptomatic. 77 COVID-19 patients are currently under home isolation.

Besides the eight confirmed deaths of COVID-19, two deaths are COVID-19 positive but not due to COVID-19. Another five deaths are under investigation and has not been reflected in the total tally.