In the wake of the new variant of concern– Omicron, State Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) department has appealed to all citizens to strictly follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and to compulsorily use a face mask in public places and get vaccinated at the earliest.
Citing European Center for Disease Prevention and control (ECDC), H&FW said that the Omicron variant was expected to cause over half of all SARS-COV-2 infections in Europe within the next few months. The probability of the further introduction and community spread of the Omicron VOC in EU/EEA countries is currently assessed as high, it said.
H&FW, therefore, strongly urged all to get inoculated against Covid-19 at the earliest to prevent hospitalizations and deaths, adding that vaccines were very effective against circulating variants and possibly against other variant of concerns (VOCs).
It said that crowd control in any social, religious, or political gathering was crucial to avoid super spreader events.
Vaccination: Nagaland has reached a milestone this week by vaccinating 60% of all eligible beneficiaries. As on Saturday, 12,96,675 beneficiaries had been inoculated against Covid-19 across the state, they include– 7,43,036 first dose and 5,53,639 second dose.
Weekly report: The state reported 34 new Covid cases from the week with a weekly sample positivity rate of 1%. Dimapur recorded the maximum number of cases– 24 and also tested 55% of all samples– 3,334 from the week. The weekly sample positivity rate has remained below 5% for the last 16 weeks.
Further, three Covid-19 deaths were recorded from the week, all from Dimapur while 15 new hospital admissions were reported from Covid-19 hospitals.
State logs 6 fresh cases: State logged six fresh Covid positive cases on Saturday- five in Dimapur and one in Kohima, taking the total caseload to 32,136.