AIZAWL: Mizoram's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,40,143 on Thursday as 241 more people, including 44 children, tested positive for the infection, an official statement said.
The coronavirus death toll of the northeastern state remained unchanged at 535 as no fresh fatality was registered, the statement issued by the state information and public relations department said.
The single-day positivity rate was 7.86 per cent as the fresh cases were detected from 3,066 samples, it said.
Aizawl district reported the highest number of new cases at 88, followed by Mamit (51) and Kolasib (33), it said.
Mizoram now has 1,847 active cases, while 1,37,761 people have recovered from the disease so far, including 238 in the last 24 hours.
The recovery rate among the COVID-19 patients stood at 98.30 per cent, while the mortality rate was at 0.38 per cent.
The state has thus far tested over 14.92 lakh samples for COVID-19.
State Immunisation Officer Dr Lalzawmi said that more than 7.29 lakh people have been inoculated to date, of whom 5.87 lakh have been fully vaccinated.
At least 139 people have returned to Mizoram from various countries since the Omicron strain was first detected in South Africa in November, another statement said.
During a COVID-19 review meeting chaired by Health Minister Dr R Lalthangliana on Wednesday, it was pointed out that 139 returnees from abroad underwent Rapid Antigen Test upon their arrival at Lengpui airport, and two of them, who had returned from Australia and Singapore, tested positive for COVID-19, it said.
The two infected returnees were admitted to Zoram Medical College (ZMC) and their samples sent to Kolkata for genomic sequencing and the results are expected by next week, it said.
The remaining returnees were placed under quarantine as per protocol, the statement said.
During the meeting, it was mentioned that a trial run for a genomic sequencing laboratory at ZMC has been already conducted and the test results sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
Genomic sequencing will be done at ZMC once official permission is obtained, it said.
Dr Pachuau Lalmalsawma, state nodal officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and official spokesperson on COVID-19, said that Mizoram registered an average of 197 COVID-19 cases per day between December 1 and 21.
The average single-day positivity rate between December 13 and 19 was 7.2 per cent.
The COVID-19 situation in the state is still not under control as the average single-day positivity rate is higher than the WHO guideline of 5 per cent, he added.