Nagaland's COVID-19 health infra shows fluctuating trend

Morung Express News 
Dimapur | April 26 

The availability of health infrastructure to combat COVID-19 has been further enhanced in some areas while decreasing in others, a comparison of data available on COVID-19 Dashboard for Nagaland on April 17 and April 26 showed. 

A little over a week after the last visit on April 18, The Morung Express visited the Dashboard (https://covid19.nagaland.gov.in) on April 26 to get on update on the Nagaland’s public health Infrastructure for COVID-19.

Among others, the Dashboard has information on district wise availability of beds, Intensive Care Units (ICUs), Isolation Wards, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), N95 masks as well as health personal on duty across the state.

Beds and ICU units
According to the Dashboard, a total of 432 beds were available in COVID-19 Hospital across the district with Kohima leading the pack with 91 beds on April 17. 

On April 26, the number of beds available has been enhanced to 452. 

However, while the availability of beds in Zunheboto had been enhanced by 8 last week to 50 this week, there data showed a decrease from 13 to 8 in Tuensang.  

A closer look at the data seems to suggest that beds in isolation ward has been converted to beds in COVID-19 hospital in Zunheboto.

The beds in isolation ward in Zunheboto declined from 21 beds to 10 from April 17 to 25.  Overall, the availability of beds in isolation wards decreased from 145 to 88 in a week. 

However, the availability of beds of ICUs also increased from 37 to 59 in a week.  With 23 ICUs, Kohima led the pack followed by Dimapur -20 and 4 each in Mokokchung, Wokha, and Tuensang.

Peren, Longleng and Zunheboto have zero ICU while in the rest of the district, it was negligible. 

Ventilators, PPE and N95 masks

 Across the state, ventilators availability decreased from 49 last week to 30 this week. Out of this, Dimapur’s share was highest at 13, followed by 10 in Kohima. 

Mokokchung and Phek had 2 ventilators while there was one each in Longleng Kiphire and Wokha. 

Mon, Peren, Tuensang and Zunheboto have no ventilator, the Dashboard informed. 

However, the availability PPEs and N95 have been considerably enhanced in one week.

A total of 20535 PPEs were available across the state on April 26, up from 15340 in April 17. The availability was highest in Kohima with 5757 PPEs, an increase from 5405 last week.

In Dimpaur too, it increased from 2300 last week to 3305 this week. The number ranges from 830-2200 in other districts. 

The availability of N95 also increased from 23115 on April 17 to 32520  on April 26. Kohima had the highest share of N95 masks with 9535, followed by Dimapur with 5335 and 2400 in Mokokchung.

In the rest of the districts, the number ranges from 1990-2400. 

Heath Workers 
According to the Dashboard, a total of 492 Government Doctors were on duty as of April 26, up from 489 last week. However, doctors on study leave also increased from 25 to 42 this week. 

Kohima has the highest share of doctors at 98, followed by 76 in Dimapur. Longleng has the lowest number of doctors on duty at 20. 

Government Nurses on duty however decreased from 2117 on April 17 to 1990 on April 26. 40 nurses were on leave.  

Meanwhile, the Dashboard informed that a total of 128258 migrants workers have been assisted till date.  Since April 16, 22173 local migrants and 26598 non-local migrants” have been assisted, it informed. Details regarding the nature of assistance were not given.  

A total of 7318 Nagaland citizens out the state have been assisted till April 24, it added.