OUR REPORTER AIZAWL, OCT 25
With daily COVID-19 cases falling below 1,000 for at least 11 consecutive days since October 15, Mizoram health officials believed the state’s COVID curve has started to show a downward trend.
The northeastern state on Monday reported 158 new cases, the lowest in over three months (since July 6), taking the state's caseload to 1,17,419, a health department official said.
However, the single-day tally is usually less on Mondays as several testing centers, including the RT-PCR laboratory at Zoram Medical College (ZMC) remained closed on Sundays, he said.
On July 5, the state reported 91 COVID- 19 cases the lowest in recent times.
The death toll rose to 412 as five more people have succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, the official said.
The single-day positivity rate also dipped from 9.47 per cent on Sunday to 6 per cent, which is the lowest over several months, he said.
Of the 158 fresh cases, 157 were confirmed through Rapid Antigen Tests, while one was detected at a TrueNat facility, he said.
At least 33 children were among the newly infected people, he said.
According to a government bulletin, Aizawl district reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases so far at 73,226, followed by Lunglei district (9,192) and Kolasib district (7,629). So far, Aizawl district reported the highest fatalities at 296, followed by Kolasib district (30) and Lunglei district (26), the bulletin said.
Of the 11 districts in the state, Khawzawl has not reported any COVID-19 fatality till now, it said.
The number of active cases now stands at 7,611, while 469 people have recovered on Monday till 5 pm, taking the total recoveries to 1,09,396.
The recovery rate among COVID19 patients is 93.17 per cent and the death rate is 0.35 per cent. According to state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), more than 12.69 lakh samples have been tested for COVID19 so far, of which 2,613 samples were tested on Sunday. As regard vaccination, the government has administered 11.96 lakh doses to beneficiaries till October 23, of which over 6.93 lakh people have received the first dose and 5 lakh people have been fully vaccinated, state immunisation officer Dr. Lalzawmi said.
(Source: The Mizoram Post Vol 19 Issue 146 Aizawl Tuesday 26 October http://www.themizorampost.net/page-view?date=26-10-2121&page_no=3)