Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 24
Following the highest single day surge in COVID-19 cases on Thursday, 65 fresh cases were reported from Nagaland on July 24, taking the number of infections in the state to 1239.
Nagaland Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) Minister, S Pangnyu Phom informed that of the 65 new cases, 41 were from Dimapur, 21 from Kohima, 2 from Peren and 1 from Tuensang.
Seven recoveries were also reported from Kohima on Friday, taking the total number of recovered cases to 537, with a recovery rate of 45%.
Of the 65 cases detected on July 24, the Health Department informed that 32 are from the armed forces, 25 from within Quarantine Centres, 1 frontline worker and 7 traced contacts. Among those detected within the QCs, the Health Department informed that 17 are returnees and 8 are non-resident technical persons on duty.
Meanwhile an elderly patient, who was undergoing treatment at the COVID-19 Hospital Dimapur, passed away on July 24 early morning.
The daily bulletin issued by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Nagaland Health and Family Welfare reflected the same, but added a disclaimer that “1 death reported from Dimapur is yet to be established as due to COVID-19.”
Nevertheless, it slotted the same under ‘death’ category and reflected in the total number of active cases which is given as 701 in the bulletin.
Co-morbid patient
The elderly patient, around 78 years of age, who died on Friday had tested positive for COVID-19 through TrueNat however, officials said confirmatory result through RT-PCR is still awaited. The officials were unsure as to when the results would be out due to backlog in testing.
If confirmed positive through RT-PCR test, this would be the first case of death due to COVID-19 in Nagaland, officially.
The patient, a resident of Kalibari Road, Dimapur, and was transferred to the COVID-19 Hospital, Dimapur from the Zion Hospital and Research Centre, on July 22.
Official sources while confirming the news informed that the patient was co-morbid with a heart condition and had a pacemaker.
