Mizoram has not reported any case of new Covid-19 variants till date even as the northeastern state grapples with the second wave of the Chinese origin virus, which has so far claimed more than 30 lakh lives worldwide.
The Mizoram government has sent as many as 326 samples from Covid-19 infected positive patients to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG) in West Bengal for genome sequencing, according to state spokesperson for Covid-19 Dr. Pachuau Lalmalsawma.
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The samples were sent between December 2020 and April this year, he said.
“Of the 326 samples, results of 69 samples have been already received and all of them tested negative for new variants of Covid-19,” Pachuau said
He said that the results of the remaining samples are awaited.
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Mizoram, equipped with poor medical facilities as compared to other states, is now grappling with the second wave of Covid-19 after a spike in cases were reported since March-end.
The landlocked state, however, is known to be one of the best performing states in the country in tackling the pandemic.
The state has so far reported only 12 Covid-19 fatalities.
The state capital Aizawl and 10 other district headquarters are now under virtual lockdown to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.
The virtual lockdown will end at 4 am on April 26.
According to Pachuau, who is also the state nodal officer of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), as many as 4,216 people, including 1,001 security personnel were diagnosed with Covid-19 in 2020.
While 2,220 patients have travel history, the rest 1,996 were locally infected, he said.
He said that at least 1,004 Covid-19 cases were reported from first January till April 23 this year and 552 cases were locally transmitted while the rest 452 patients have travel history.
Mizoram reported its first Covid-19 case on March 24 last year.
The number of total Covid-19 cases now stands at 5,220, of which 608 are active.
A total of 4,600 people have recovered from the infection.
The recovery rate is 88.47 and the infection rate is 1.83 per cent.
Aizawl district reported the highest cases at 3,502, followed by Lunglei district, which reported 454 cases till Friday.
With 23 cases each Khawzawl and Hnahthial districts reported the least and both are the only Covid-19 free districts in the state as of now.