A central view of Mon Town. (Photo Courtesy: Mon.nic.in)
• Around 50 active cases involving returnees
• Mon Town under total lockdown
• No evidence of community spread, says DC
Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 27
One Dobashi has reportedly tested COVID-19 positive in Mon on July 27.
According to official sources, he was confirmed positive during the routine testing of frontline workers in the district.
Speaking to The Morung Express, DC Mon said that contact tracing has been initiated and since the person is asymptomatic, he is being kept at a COVID Care Centre.
While it was also learnt that there were around 50 active cases of returnees in Mon district, the DC informed that all the cases are asymptomatic. Since the district follows a two negative tests policy, some of them have already been discharged but are in recovery centres as their second tests are due.
The recovery numbers in the state are different because they are being declared as recovered only after two consecutive negative tests instead of just one, he noted.
Ruling out the possibility of a community spread, the DC said that the Dobashi must have been cross infected from others who tested positive earlier.
So far, all the cases have a known source of infection; hence the positive cases are local transmission, he said.
The entire Mon, Tizit and Phomching subdivisions have been locked down to curb the spread of the virus, the DC informed.
Rigorous contact tracing is on, after which administration will ascertain if the situation is fully under control, he said.
Delay in test reports
In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in Mon, the district is also facing delay in the receipt of test reports.
Earlier, Mon district had tied up with ICMR Dibrugarh for confirmatory tests. However, owing to the long wait time and pool sampling being followed in Dibrugarh, the samples were re-routed to the BSL-3 lab in Kohima.
This comes after reports of mounting test backlog at the BSL-3 lab in Kohima emerged as samples from Dimapur were also being routed to Kohima due to lack of "consumables" at the BSL-2 lab in CIHSR Dimapur. This could mean more delays in confirmation of cases for Mon district.
Confirmatory test results of samples are received within 24hrs of dispatch, according to earlier reports. However, the test result of the Dobashi was received only on July 27. The samples had reached the BSL-3 Lab in Kohima on July 22.
