Coronavirus: Mizoram sees sharp rise in active cases, positivity rate over 10% in 8 of 11 districts

Mizoram has seen a sharp rise in its active cases of coronavirus with children and teenagers accounting for nearly 39% of the caseload. It is now the fourth state with maximum active Covid-19 cases after Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

The state has 16,361 active cases as on October 2, contributing 6% of India’s total active case pool. Daily 1,500-2,000 fresh cases are being reported in the state.

On Friday, the central government announced that a team would visit Mizoram to assess the situation.

The surge in Mizoram is to some extent in line with what several experts have been saying, that Covid-19 waves may henceforth occur localised, limited to a few districts or a state. Currently, most parts of North East and Kerala have a higher positivity rate than the rest of the country.

Eight out of 11 districts in Mizoram have more than 10% positivity rate. Across India there are 30 such districts. District Champhai in Mizoram has reported the highest positivity rate at 27.6% in the September 23-29 week. Two districts in Mizoram, Khawzawl and Kolasib, are also of concern, their positivity rate is between 5% and 10%.

What explains the surge now?

Over 49% Covid-19 samples sequenced from Mizoram have the Delta variant, now believed to be…

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