Nagaland announces Covid-19 vaccination for 45-year-old and above

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, March 27 (EMN): Amid spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in several countries including India, the department of Health and Family Welfare has announced that vaccination for 45-year-old and above will begin in Nagaland from April 1.

It came a few days after the government of India announced that Covid-19 vaccine would be made available to everyone above 45 years, with or without comorbidity, to widen the scope of the immunisation drive.

“Vaccinating as many as possible in the shortest amount of time and achieving maximum population immunity in the wake of the emerging Covid-19 scenario is critical,” read the weekly bulletin from the state’s Health department.

The department stated that it felt the need to include those aged 45 and above in the ambit of inoculation considering that 70% of the deaths in the state are above 45 years and the median age of deaths is 55 years, while 84% of deaths have associated comorbidities.

It informed that as many as 81,269 doses of Covishield vaccine have been administered across Nagaland from 1420 sessions and 14,064 doses were given in the past week ending March 26.

The state registered four fresh Covid-19 cases and no deaths in the past week ending March 26, Friday. The tally remained unchanged at 12229 as no new cases were reported in the state on Saturday.

The minister of Health and Family Welfare, S Pangnyu Phom, updated that no positive case and recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours.

According to the information provided by the Health department, the state currently has five asymptomatic cases – four in Dimapur and one in Kohima –, 11979 recoveries and 91 deaths, out of which 10 have been ruled “not Covid-related”.

However, India has been witnessing surge in the number of Covid cases for weeks now, recording 62,258 new cases and 291 deaths in the last 24 hours. The country’s active caseload increased to 4,52,647 on Saturday, taking the cumulative tally to 1,19,08,910, while the number of recoveries is 1,12,95,023 at 94.84% recovery rate. 

SOPs for travellers and returnees

In view of surge in Covid cases and the increase in the number of variants in other parts of the country, the department of Health and Family Welfare has notified that all travellers coming to Nagaland should strictly observe the laid down SOP to avoid any importation of cases. It also urged all the citizens to do everything to avoid a second wave in the state.

It went on to inform that the SOPs issued for returnees and travellers on November 25, 2020, still stands.

Here are some SOPs for travellers and returnees:

• Any traveller with a negative RT PCR test done not earlier than 72 hours before arrival will be exempted from quarantine.
• All travellers coming to Nagaland without a negative test report must observe 10 days quarantine (home or paid), unless exempted under SOP.
• Travellers who wish to shorten quarantine period should opt for testing and if negative can be released from quarantine.
• All symptomatic travellers will be tested as per protocol.