Nagaland’s weekly COVID-19 positive cases declined in the last week but mortalities due to the infection saw a rising trend, the State Health and Family Welfare department said in its weekly bulletin.
The State saw increasing weekly spike of positive cases since the last week of April with positivity rate from 23 per cent to 34 per cent but recorded a decline in new cases for the first time till from May 23 to May 28.
The number of fatalities continued an upward trend with 84 deaths, the highest ever till date, reported in the week.
As compared to the previous week (May 15-21) which reported 2062 positive cases, the department said that this week (May 22-28) only 1622 cases were reported, indicating a steady decline.
The department attributed this declining trend to imposition of containment zones in Kohima and Dimapur from May 5 and total lockdown in the State from May 14.
Also read: Assam: Dreaded NLFB cadre, disguised as Rapido rider, held in Guwahati
“Daily cases usually decrease two weeks or more after a lockdown and there has been a small decline but it has to sustained with more measures for a 28-day cycle,” it said adding the decline has been more in Dimapur.
The full 28-day cycle will end on June 11 and the till then the State will be under complete lockdown.
The department said the deaths always follow a week or more after increase in cases and is expected to plateau in a week unless there are no new infections.
Though the State witnessed a steady decline in the overall sample positivity rate, there was an increase in number of districts with more than 10 per cent weekly sample positivity rate, the bulletin said.
With 84 deaths recorded this week alone, one of the highest so far ever since the onset of the Covid pandemic, the department said that 21 per cent of deaths have happened within 24 hours of arrival to a hospital signifying arrival with very advanced symptoms. It also said 10 deaths had been reported from home isolation.
The department said of the 259 deaths recorded this year alone, details of 56 cases were still under investigation.