The total number of COVID-19 cases in Mizoram on Thursday touched a 1,500 mark with 26 people, including an 83-year-old man, being newly infected with the virus, an official said.
The official said 13 cases were confirmed at Zoram Medical College (ZMC), 3 cases at three district hospitals with the help of TrueNat machines and 10 cases were confirmed through Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) in various districts.
Of the 26 cases, 21 cases were reported from Aizawl district, 3 from Serchhip district and 1 each from Lunglei and Hnahthial district, he said.
He said that 3 Border Security Force (BSF) jawans, 5 personnel of Mizoram Armed Police (MAP), 3 minors aged between 5 and 10 and two health workers were among the newly infected 26 patients.
According to the official, 20 cases from Aizawl district were locally transmitted cases as the patients have no travel history and 18 of them have been identified to have contacted positive patients while the remaining 2 patients are yet to be ascertained as to how they contracted the virus.
The remaining 6 patients from various districts have travel history, he said.
Of the 26 patients, 7 people belonged to two families from a locality in Aizawl, the official added.
According to the health department, the total COVID-19 cases on Thursday was 1,506 out of which 567 are active cases.
It said that a total of 939 people have already recovered and the recovery rate on Thursday stood at 62.36 per cent.
Altogether 55,465 samples have been tested, including 1,266 on Wednesday, the department said.