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Aizawl, Sep 30 (IANS) The Central government would provide financial assistance and medicines to Mizoram besides sending an expert team to the northeastern state to deal with the alarming rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state.
The Covid positivity rate in Mizoram has jumped to 18.44 per cent, the highest in India, officials said here on Thursday.
The Union Health Ministry data on Thursday showed that the country's weekly positivity rate is 1.74 per cent, which is less than 3 per cent for the last 97 days, and the daily positivity rate is 1.56 per cent, less than 3 per cent for the last 31 days.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan while talking to a Mizoram government delegation on Wednesday in New Delhi had said that a team of experts would be sent to Mizoram as soon as possible.
A health official in Aizawl said that Bhushan informed the Mizoram delegation that the Centre can make arrangement for supply of Monoclonal Antibodies Cocktail (MAC), an expensive but highly-effective Covid drug costing Rs 1,20,000 per set, for Mizoram free of cost if the state government makes a request for it.
Responding to a demand of the Mizoram delegation for financial assistance to the state, the Union Health Secretary informed that out of the total funds allocation of Rs 14,744.99 crore under the Emergency Covid Response Package of the Centre for all the states and Union Territories, the fund sanctioned for Mizoram was Rs 44.38 crore.
"The first installment of Rs 19.94 crore has been released and the remaining amount will be released as soon as an expenditure detail of the first installment is submitted," the top official said.
The four-member Mizoram government delegation included state's Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members C. Lalrosanga and K. Vanlalvena, respectively, OSD to Chief Minister, Rosangzuala, and the state's Resident Commissioner in Delhi, Amjad Tak.
According to an official statement, Lalrosanga apprised the Union Health Secretary about the ongoing Covid crisis in the state and how Mizoram is in dire need of central assistance in the form of medicines, equipment and other Covid-related materials due to increasing number of positive cases.
"Mizoram is looking for active support from the Centre beyond the sanctioned funds. The delegation also requested a team of experts to be sent to Mizoram as soon as possible to examine the ongoing Covid crisis faced by the state," the statement said.
According to health officials in Mizoram, for the past two weeks, around 1,500 people are testing positive for Covid every day.
With a population of 1.1 million (2011 census), Mizoram, India's second least populous state, has so far reported 93,660 positive cases and 309 fatalities.
Covid data analysis showed that around 7 per cent of the state's population have been infected by the virus so far.
Talking to IANS, Mizoram health officials said that the state's recovery rate is 82.78 per cent as against the national recovery rate of 97.85 per cent.
As of Thursday evening, Mizoram had 15,815 active cases, while 77,536 people have recovered from the disease so far.
Of the state's 11 districts, Aizawl has registered the highest number of cases at 59,533 besides recording 231 deaths, followed by Kolasib (6,952 cases, 24 deaths) and Lunglei (6,855 cases, 17 deaths).
Khawzawl is the only district where no death has been reported though 596 people have tested positive there so far.
--IANS
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