Mizoram health minister R. Lalthangliana has said that the state as of now is free from the new mutant strain of the novel coronavirus.

Although seven people have returned from the United Kingdom, all of them have tested negative for the Covid-19.

The health minister said that the returnees will be kept under observation for some more time, to rule out any chance of further infection.

India on Wednesday reported 15 cases of the highly infectious new variant strain, pushing the country’s tally to 73, the Union health ministry said.

Meanwhile, Mizoram on Wednesday reported 13 new Covid-19 positive cases, taking the state’s tally to 4,247.

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While 4,160 people have recovered from the virus, the state has 79 active cases at present.

Mizoram is the least affected state in India and only eight people have succumbed to the infection so far here.

The state has one RT-PCR laboratory, 10 TrueNat laboratories where the Covid-19 test is being conducted.

The Mizoram government on January 5 issued a notification fixing a rate for the Covid-19 test for voluntary purposes.

The rate of Covid-19 voluntary test with the help of the RT-PCR machine was fixed at Rs 2,000, while TrueNat lab was fixed at Rs 1,500 and that of Rapid Antigen Test was fixed at Rs 500.

“We at present have 18,990 RT-PCR test kits, 3,528 TrueNat test kits and 15,000 RNA extraction kits and an additional 4,800 TrueNat test kits will arrive in the state soon,” said Lalthangliana.

Lalthangliana also convened a meeting with officials of various departments, police, doctors and churches to review the present Covid-19 scenario in the state.

The meeting observed that only a few Covid-19 cases were reported during the festive season as people had strictly adhered to Covid-19 protocols and other safety measures during Christmas and New Year celebrations.

The meeting also said that the Covid-19 vaccine will be rolled out as per the guidelines of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC).