A study has revealed that at least 50 per cent of COVID-19 fatalities in Mizoram occurred due to late detection of the infection, a health department official said on Saturday.
The study was conducted by experts from Zoram Medical College (ZMC), the lone COVID-19 dedicated hospital in the state recently, the medical college director John Zohmingthanga said.
He said the research team studied at least 174 Covid-19 victims who died in the medical college. They found that 50 per cent failed to have their samples tested soon after they developed symptoms of Covid-19.
Some of the victims got their sample test done only two weeks after they developed the symptoms, he said.
The study found that 86.5 per cent of COVID-19 victims in the state were admitted at the ZMC, and 65 per cent were above 60 years of age, the official said.
Of the total Covid-19 victims whose cases have been studied, 133 people were unvaccinated, while 21 were fully vaccinated and 30 of them had received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, the study said. Twenty-three had no other illness besides Covid-19, while the majority of them had co-morbidities like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, cancer, TB and liver problems, it said.
One among COVID-19 victims had tested positive for the infection two times, it said.
So far, four pregnant women have died of Covid-19 in Mizoram, the study also said.
Mizoram on Saturday reported 886 Covid-19 cases, pushing the state’s tally to 56,644, officials said.
The state also reported 3 new fatalities, which took the death toll to 209, they said. The number of active cases now stands at 7581, while 48,854 people have recovered from the infection, including 518 people on Saturday till 5 pm, they said.
The recovery rate among Covid-19 patients is 86.24 per cent, and the death rate is 0.36 per cent.The state has tested more than 8.34 lakh samples for Covid-19 to date.
Over 6.54 people have been vaccinated till Friday, according to state immunisation officer Dr Lalzawmi.