The Manipur government Friday announced that sero surveillance in the state will start from November 30. Principal secretary, Health, Vumlunmang Vualnam, said the surveillance will initially commence in four districts, namely Imphal West, Kakching, Ukhrul and Churachandpur. He said the health department is targeting to collect 4,600 samples, of which 1,380 samples each will be collected from two valley districts of Imphal West and Kakching, and another 920 each from the hill districts Ukhrul, Churachandpur. The survey will be carried out by as many as 12 teams that comprises five members in each team. In October, there was a concern about rising active cases of COVID-19 in the state. However, through proactive steps, the rising curve has been arrested, from 4,223 active cases to 3115 on November 12 evening, said Vualnam. He said the health department has also started encouraging the use of pulse oximeters as one of the important equipment in tackling COVID-19. Apart from use in clinics, the department initiated providing the device to patients in home isolation, he informed that the department had distributed 613 pieces of pulse oximeter. The principal secretary said there is also enough number of beds in COVID Care Centres (CCC) and over 750 beds are currently lying empty, of which 2264 beds are in 35 various CCC. Director, health, K Rajo informed that 521 health care workers were infected by COVID-19 and four of them had lost their lives. Six more COVID-19 related deaths were recorded on Friday pushing the tally to 213. With 214 more testing positive for COVID-19, the total tally of positive cases has climbed to 21,425.
