No deaths among those who received 2 Covid-19 vaccine doses in Dimapur so far

Our Reporter
Dimapur, May 31 (EMN): Deaths due to Covid-19 in Dimapur is alarmingly high with 4.11% death rate reported from January 2021 till date; and out of the 214 Covid deaths in the district, only 11 victims were vaccinated with the first dose and the remaining 203 victims were not vaccinated.

This was informed by the nodal officer for Covid-related activities in Dimapur district, Y Kikheto Sema, during a press briefing at DC’s conference hall, Dimapur on Monday.

Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Soundararajan, Commissioner of Police Rothihu Tetseo and Chief Medical Officer Dr. I Moatemjen also attended the briefing.

Sema informed that Dimapur has about 375 Covid beds in eight hospitals; while an additional 285 Covid beds have been set up in the last three weeks, and appreciated the private hospitals especially private doctors association for coming forward and sharing the burden.

He also informed that Team Dimapur has launched a website (https://teamdimapurcovid.com) where one can get information on Covid-19 hospital status- availability of beds, ventilators, oxygen, Covid-19 testing centre and area-wise risk zone of the district.

Sema informed that the 110-bedded Covid Care Centre at the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) near Purana bazaar in Dimapur has been kept in reserve.

However, if situation arises for use of the reserved IHM hospital, Sema said issue of manpower shortage would arise, and therefore as and when it becomes operational, the government is planning to redeploy manpower from other districts where there are less Covid patients. He added that they have also discussed this issue with the Assam Rifles Brigadier Satyendra Tiwari to extend their service if the need arises.

The nodal officer informed that out of 375 beds available in Dimapur, 20 beds are with ventilators, 32 ICU beds and around 219 beds with oxygen attached.

He informed that the PSA oxygen plant at District Hospital Dimapur got its clearance on May 25 and it has been functioning since the day itself.

He informed that the state government has acquired oxygen cylinders and added that the state has increased the availability of oxygen cylinders by 900% (B and D type oxygen cylinder) from what was available in the initial stage.

Sema added that as of now, the state has around 4000 plus oxygen cylinders, out of which 856 is allocated to Dimapur, which is around 22 to 23% availability of oxygen cylinders.

He informed that the BMA liquid air oxygen plant at Naga United Village, which got damaged on May 23, had been repaired within three days and it started functioning again on May 28.

He stated informed that total Covid positive cases recorded in Nagaland till May 30 was 21563, out of which Dimapur accounted for 11,492, which is 53% of the total cases recorded in the state.

Out of the 5049 total active positive cases in the state, Dimapur accounts for 2506, which is 49.63% of the total active cases, adding that the Covid positive percentage had come down from 61% to 50% during the last couple of weeks due to lockdown, which he said was “quite satisfactory”.

In regard to home isolation, Dimapur has 2,231 people as against the 4364 under home isolation in the state, which is 51%. Moreover, out of the 236 Covid patients admitted in hospital, 162 patients were in Dimapur, which is 68.64% of the total patients admitted in the state.

Sema informed that Dimapur district has conducted 30,027 tests from January 2021 till date, out of which 5179 tested positive.

He stated that out of total 5179 active cases, only 298 were vaccinated with the first dose and 4881 were not vaccinated

He added that the vaccinated death rate is 5.14%, mostly with co-morbidities, whereas non-vaccinated death rate stands at 94.86%. Out of the 214 Covid deaths, 148 were male and 66 female.

He informed that the data has been collected from all the hospitals in Dimapur and vaccination is proved to be safe. He appealed to all the citizens to get vaccine.

The nodal officer also cautioned people spreading false information about vaccination on social media, saying that “if they do not wish to be vaccinated, they should not confuse others”. He also directed the deputy commissioner and commissioner of Police to take appropriate action against the defaulters as per the provision of the law.