Nagaland on Saturday recorded the highest single-day spike of 130 COVID19 positive cases, taking the state’s tally to 1,823.
“Tested 552 samples for Covid-19, out of which 130 cases came out positive,” Nagaland health minister S Pangnyu Phom tweeted on Saturday.
He said out of the new cases, 109 positive cases have been reported from Dimapur and 21 cases have reported from Kohima.
Phom said contact tracing has been fully activated.
Of the 1,823 positive cases, Nagaland currently has 1,182 active cases while 635 patients have recovered.
Five people have died of COVID19 infection so far.
In another development, the Nagaland health department has permitted private labs/hospitals to conduct COVID19 test by TrueNat/CNBAAT, subject to mandatory criteria of obtaining the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation and approval/registration under ICMR.
In an order, principal director, directorate of health and family welfare department, Dr Vizolie Z Suokhrie said this is primarily to ensure high-quality testing and correct interpretation of test results and also to improve the overall quality of private labs/hospitals.
Suokhrie said the registered private labs/hospitals within the state are allowed to charge Rs 1500 per test from the patients for Covid-19 testing through TrueNat, which is subject to revision from time to time.
The state government also allowed private hospitals registered under NHCE Act 1997 to use Rapid Antibody Test as Point of Care (PoC) for Covid-19 testing subject to fulfillment of advisory and guideline issued by it and the ICMR from time to time.