State Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) department has expressed serious concern that the Covid-19 mortality rate among pregnant women was found to be much higher than the general population.
“Mortality rate of 10.3% among pregnant women as against 2% among general population calls for adequate preventive measures,” the department said in its weekly bulletin released on Saturday. It said that nine COVID-19 deaths were reported among pregnant women and none of them had been vaccinated. “Vaccination for pregnant women is highly advised and to follow all Covid-19 appropriate behaviour to avoid infection,” H&FW stated.
A new study by the ICMR has stated that coronavirus can infect a higher proportion of pregnant women who can have moderate to severe infection and the affected women will require immediate medical attention.
The most complications observed among pregnant women were preterm delivery and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
Upward trend in Covid deaths: Nagaland has witnessed an upward trend in Covid deaths with 18 deaths recorded during September 11-17, the highest since August 7 last. H&GW said that 16 deaths were reported from Dimapur alone.
Though the state recorded a decline in positive cases, the department once again pointed out that the high fatality rate was due to low vaccination coverage and large number of undetected cases in the population.
Fully vaccinated individuals in the State constituted only 9% of all positive cases since March 2021, it said, adding that Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur were the least vaccinated states in the North East. The three states also have the highest Covid-19 mortality rate. “Reduction of deaths in the subsequent waves will mostly depend on the vaccination coverage,” it added.
WSPR at below 5%: For the fifth week, the state’s weekly sample positivity rate (WSPR) remained below 5%. The current weekly sample positivity of 1.9 % was the same as the national weekly positivity rate, the department. Meanwhile, the department said that the number of reported cases could be much lesser than the actual cases due to hesitancy in testing, reporting of self-tests/COVISELF and false negative cases from rapid antigen tests.
60 fresh cases, 1 death: Nagaland on Saturday recorded 60 fresh cases while one more patient succumbed to the infection. Of the fresh cases, 21 were from Tuensang, Dimapur-20, Kohima-12, five in Phek, one each in Mokokchung and Peren, taking the total caseload to 30840.
The death of one more patient in Dimapur, pushed the death to toll to 653 (including 14 non-Covid deaths but with positivity).