4 superspreader events contribute to 163 Covid-19 cases in Nagaland last week

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 21 (EMN): Four ‘superspreader events’ in the past week (as of November 20) contributed 163 Covid-19 cases out of the week’s record 970 detections, according to the Nagaland Health department’s weekly data issued on Saturday.

“The 80/20 role in epidemiology states that 80% of cases come only from 20% of the infected and these 20% are responsible for explosive growth and sustained transmission. Superspreading events (where one person infects more people than on an average beyond the R0 number) have been the key driver in the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe. Superspreading relies on more than one person, and it cannot happen in isolation. It takes a group of people that gather in such a way that increases the risk of transmitting the virus,” it stated.

Every infectious illness has what’s called an r-naught (R0) number, which represents the average contagiousness of the illness. It’s the average number of people the virus will be spread to by someone who’s ill if proper precautions aren’t taken.

According to the department, the settings where the four superspreader events took place include two ‘government offices, one district jail and one post office’.

“Preventing future superspreader events in the state is one of the main pillars in containing the pandemic. All the four events have happened in crowded and closed settings,” it informed.              

Once again, the department has cautioned that transmission slowly moves from younger age groups to high risk groups as more people with co-morbidities and older age groups get infected along with increase in symptomatic cases (5%).

The week also recorded four fatalities and 64% of all deaths are below 60 years of age, it added.

“Household and workplaces are the most common places of infection. Fever (78%) and cough (51%) are the most common reported symptoms in the state. The sample positivity rate is higher than the national average at 9.8%. High sample positivity rate could also point to more undetected cases in the population.

“Among the traced contacts, the most affected age group is 21-30 years at 26% (1018/3952) followed by 31-40 years at 25% (1006/3952). Among them, 63% (2480/3952) are males. Following younger age groups, there is a continuous increase in cases among 51-60 years age group in the past one week, and even in 60 plus age category,” the department stated.