Mizoram, Manipur tighten belt amidst surging Covid-19 cases

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Sep. 16 (EMN): Health authorities  in Mizoram and Manipur have tightened their belts by instructing  district officials to screen and conduct testing of the daily interstate trans-border commuters in the wake of surging Covid-19 cases.

Informing this during a weekly media briefing in Imphal on Thursday, Director Dr. K Rajo Singh of the Directorate of Health Services said that the CMO of Churachandpur district bordering Mizoram had issued an order in this regard.

In a memorandum issued on Wednesday, the CMO said,”…the daily interstate trans-border commuters have to be screened and tested at the Sinzawl ILP counter by staff of the Public Health Centre, Sinzawl”.

Instructing medical officer in charge of the PHC Sinzawl to arrange/prepare for routine duties and the same has to be forwarded to the CMO, the memorandum said, ‘The nurses posted at public health sub-centre under PHC Sinzawl may be mobilised for routine duties at the Sinzawl ILP counter’.

At the same time the district nodal officer of the district testing centre in Churachandpur has also been requested to provide an adequate amount of RAT test kit to PHC Sinzawl to carry out the said screening and testing centre, it stated.

According to reports, Mizoram which borders Manipur’s Churachandpur and Pherzawl districts, on Tuesday reported the highest single-day spike of Covid-19 cases as 1502 people including 300 children have tested positive for the infection.

Meanwhile, Manipur on Thursday reported 216 new Covid-19 positive cases, when 3,122 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, official sources said. The newly detected cases are mainly from Imphal West (94), Imphal East (39), Kangpokpi (20) and Ukhrul (20) districts, taking the state’s tally to 1,17,913 with 2,614 active cases.

The state also reported four Covid deaths from Imphal West (two), Chandel (one) and Kangpokpi (one) districts in the last 24 hours, taking the state’s death toll to 1,821.

So far, the maximum numbers of death cases were reported from Imphal West district (607) while Pherzawl district had no death case till date.

On the other hand, with 219 new recoveries including 58 from home isolation in the last 24 hours, the total number of recovered Covid-19 cases in Manipur reached 1,13,478. Thus, the state’s recovery rate increased to 96.24%.

Among all the 16 districts of the state, the maximum number of cumulative Covid-19 cases were reported from Imphal West district while the maximum number of cumulative cases among the 10 hill districts was reported from Churachandpur district.

Altogether 471 Covid-19 positive cases are under home isolation. Till date 12,61,900 persons were tested for Covid-19 at the various testing centres in the state, the source said.

As per latest official reports, the state has so far given 16,06,776 doses of Covid vaccines including 12,09,770 first and 3,97,006 second doses to the residents.