OUR REPORTER AIZAWL, DEC 2
In the wake of the detection of a fresh strain of coronavirus ‘Omicron,’ in the country, the Mizoram government is preparing to tackle the highly contagious South African strain, a health department official said on Thursday.
Dr. PC Lalramenga, a member of the State-Level Expert Team on COVID19 Management in a statement said that the expert team has submitted draft guidelines to the state government to screen and monitor people coming from abroad and what they should follow.
He hoped that the government will soon notify the guidelines.
Lalramenga urged people to refrain from spreading rumours and fake news about Omicron, which could panic others.
He said that the new strain of virus is still under study by experts and it will take at least two weeks to ascertain the nature of the new strain whether or not it is dangerous.
However, people should not ignore and pay negligence to COVID-19 appropriate behaviuor as the new virus strain is found to be highly contagious, he said.
According to the official, Omicron variant was first discovered from a patient in Southern Africa on November 19.
Later, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a "variant of concern,' he said.
The new strain of coronavirus will be more infectious than Delta variant as it has a significantly high number of mutations and spike protein, he said.
Meanwhile, two cases of fresh Omicron variant of COVID-19 have been detected in the country, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.
Both the cases have been reported in Karnataka from two patients aged 66 and 46.
While the 66-year-old patient was a foreigner, the other patient was a healthcare worker in Bengaluru.
Mizoram reported 275 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the state's tally to 1,35,450, state health department sadi.
The death toll rose to 501 as one fresh fatality has been reported in the last 24 hours, it said. The number of active cases now stands at 3,404, while 368 people have recovered on Thursday till 5 pm, taking the total recoveries to 1,31,545, it said.
The single-day positivity rate was 8.38 per cent as the fresh cases were detected from 3,281 sample tests, it said.
The state has so far tested over 14.36 lakh samples. Over 7.19 lakh people have been vaccinated, of which 5.64 lakh people have receive full dose till Wednesday, the department said.
(Source: The Mizoram Post Vol 19 Issue 182 Aizawl Friday 03 December 2021 http://www.themizorampost.net/page-view?date=03-12-2021&page_no=1