OUR REPORTER AIZAWL, SEPT 21
Mizoram registers highest single-day spike of Covid-19
At least 3 cases of Delta plus variant of Covid-19 have been reported for the first time in Mizoram, a health official said on Tuesday.
State nodal officer and official spokesperson on Covid-19 Dr. Pachuau Lalmalsawma said that new variants of Covid-19 were found in 90.30 per cent of Covid-19 samples sent from the state to National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) in West Bengal for whole-genome sequencing in August.
"We sent a total of 350 Covid-19 infected samples for whole-genome sequencing to NIBMG in August. Of this, 3 samples had tested positive for Delta plus, 213 for Delta variant and 70 samples were identified with sublineage of Delta variant," he said.
Of the 3 cases of Delta plus variant, 2 were reported from Champhai district and 1 from Kolasib district, he said.
He said that samples were collected randomly from Covid-19 infected patients from Aizawl, Lunglei, Kolasib, Champhai and Serchhip districts.
"It is fortunate that none of the patients infected with new variants of Covid-19 have died. All the 316 patients have fully recovered from the infections," he said.
According to Pachuau, Mizoram has so far reported 510 cases of Covid19 new variant.
The state reported the first four cases of Delta variant in April, 73 cases of Delta variant and one each of Alpha and Eta variants in July.
115 more cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 were reported in August.
Mizoram on Tuesday reported the highest ever single-day spike of Covid19 cases as 1,731 people, including 332 children, have tested positive for the infection, pushing the state's tally to 81,460, a health official said.
The death toll rose to 267 as four more people have succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, he said.
The single-day infection rate was 18.53 per cent as the fresh cases were detected from 9,344 sample tests, he said.
The fresh cases were reported from various districts with Aizawl district reporting the highest at 1,144, followed by Siaha at 114 and Lawngtlai at 104, he said.
At least 332 children and 4 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan were among the newly infected people, he said.
Five patients have travel history while the rest 1,726 were found to have contracted the disease locally, he said.
At least 807 patients have developed symptoms of Covid-19, he added. Mizoram now has 14,289 active cases, while 66,904 people have recovered from the infection.
At least 847 people have recovered on Tuesday. The recovery rate among Covid-19 patients is 82.13 per cent and the death rate is 0.32 per cent.
The state has conducted more than 10.25 lakh sample tests for Covid-19 till date. According to state immunisation officer Dr. Lalzawmi, over 6.71 lakh people have been vaccinated till Monday, of which 3.74 lakh people have received full doses.
(Source: The Mizoram Post Vol 19 Issue 117 Aizawl Wednesday 22 September http://www.themizorampost.net/page-view?date=22-09-2021&page_no=1)