Data based on The Morung Express Archive; Daily and Weekly COVID-19 bulletin published by Directorate of Health and Family Welfare, Nagaland; MyGov Nagaland, and Nagaland State COVID-19 WarRoom’s Dashboard. (Morung Infographic)
A relatively light first wave, a lethal second wave
Moa Jamir
Dimapur | May 24
“Nagaland is no longer a green zone” read The Morung Express’ front page headline on May 26, 2020 a day after Nagaland officially reported its first three confirmed cases of COVID-19.
A year after the first-three COVID-19 cases were confirmed on May 25, 2020, this is a timeline of the cases in Nagaland thereafter.
While the exact detection of the first COVID-19 cases is not known, China officially alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) of the several pneumonia cases in the country. On January 7, it was identified as COVID-19 and subsequently declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
In India, the first confirmed cases were reported on January 30, 2021 and as infections spread, the country went into a first phase lockdown from March 25-April 14.
Cases and fatalities
With the country in lockdown, the phenomenon of pandemic-induced reverse migration began to unfold in India. Nagaland was no exception.
The first Shramik special train carrying over 1,469 people from Nagaland first arrived at Dimapur Railway Station on May 22. They started their journey from Chennai on May 19.
As more trains arrived, the first cases were reported among the returnees in quarantine on May 25. However, earlier on April 22, a patient from Dimapur tested positive in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital but the case was migrated to Assam.
According to the ‘Report on the Inter-State Movement of Stranded Persons’ released by the State Government on December 4, 2020, during the May-July 2020 period, 34 special buses, 12 Shramik special trains covering 1,02,555 kms in 28 days, managed to bring back 13,594 returnees to Nagaland.
Meanwhile, on June 6, Nagaland’s caseload reached 100 cases; 12 days after the first cases were detected. The State officially recorded its first COVID-19 recoveries on the same day when 8 patients were declared free of the virus.
57 days after the detection of first cases, Nagaland logged its first 1,000 cases on July 20.
It took the state 176 days to reach the 10,000 threshold on November 16.
On the 189th day after the first 10000-mark, the State reached the second 10,000-threshold mark with total active cases of 20,395 on May 24, 2021.
Meanwhile, the State reported its first COVID-19 fatalities when an elderly patient, who died at the COVID-19 Hospital, Dimapur on July 24, 2020 and a woman from Assam, who was found dead at a paid quarantine centre on July 22, were confirmed as COVID-19 positive on July 24.
Second wave
There was considerable downward trend in detection of new cases since the third week of December 2020 till March 2021.
However, as the second wave hit India, Nagaland also started reporting increase in cases since the first week of April this year.
It saw a huge spike since April 20 and the upward trend continued necessitating the announcement of one-week total lockdown by the State Government to curb the surge from May 14-21, which was later extended to May 31.
The effect of the second wave is proving to be more infectious and lethal than the first wave.
For instance, official COVID-19 related death in Nagaland since the detection of first cases in Nagaland on May 25, 2020 till May 3, 2021 was 100.
However, COVID-19 related deaths thereafter have increased considerably and reached the next 100-threshold to reach 205 deaths on May 17. The official status as of May 24 is 285 deaths – indicating 80 fatalities in the intervening period.
In terms of total cases, Nagaland’s status as of April 20, 2021 was just 12,650. Just a month after on May 24, the total is hovering at 20,395 total cases, signifying a considerable increase in the intervening period.
