Fight third wave of coronavirus as team, says Health department

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Jan. 8 (EMN): The department of Health and Family Welfare, government of Nagaland, has advised the people not to panic but make the right choices during the Omicron wave, which, it said is expected to be shorter than the delta wave.

Considering the highly transmissible nature of the Omicron, the department said the people should be alert and fight the third wave together as a team. It recommended avoiding super spreader events, staying away from crowded places and wearing mask to avoid more hospitalisation and deaths.

It stressed on getting vaccinated, including the second dose, and the third dose for those aged above 60 with comorbidities and passed nine months after taking the second dose. It added that healthcare workers and frontline workers should avail the precautionary dose in order to perform their duties effectively and avoid more mortality.

While emphasising on the need to test for Covid-19 like symptoms to stop community transmission, it urged the public to co-operate and support the already exhausted healthcare and frontline workers as in the earlier waves.

Yellow alert for Dimapur

The state’s weekly sample positivity rate was 1.6%, as 54 new Covid cases were reported from 3,439 samples tested last week ending January 7. However, Dimapur has been put under situational level 2 (Yellow) as it accounted for 49 of the total weekly cases with a 100% increase.

The lone death during the past week was also from Dimapur and the weekly Covid-19 hospitalisation stood at five.

The update from the Health department also informed that self-test / random tests contributed to 50% of all new weekly new cases and 35% from travellers.

A total of 13.42 lakh doses of vaccine have been administered in the state so far.

“Vaccination is now available for those born in2005, 2006 and 2007 and should be availed to avoid hospitalisations, deaths and enable continuation of learning in schools. Over 1 crore teenagers between 15–18-year age group have been vaccinated in the country including 401 in Nagaland,” it updated.