Mizoram has the highest active case ratio in the country right now
Photo: @DrThangtea0 / Twitter Mizoram in the North East currently has the highest novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) positivity rate in India, according to latest data. This is despite the state having a high vaccination rate.
Mizoram’s active COVID-19 cases were 8.65 per cent of its total cases. Kerala, which comes second in India in terms of active ratio, has a value of just 1.68 per cent.
The Mizoram government has ordered the strict use of masks for the next 10 days inside homes and in public areas to curb the spread. It released an order October 11 which said:
During the campaign, people should wear masks even at home all the time except during meals and family members should not dine together.
A four-member central team led by officials from the National Centre for Disease Control visited Mizoram October 5 and suggested better contact tracing to control the spread of the disease.
That seems to have helped considering that the new cases have remained below 1,000 since October 15. Before this, 1,500-2,000 cases per day were being reported since the middle of September. Despite this, the state has the second-lowest death ratio in the country — Mizoram’s figure is 0.34 compared to 2.75 in Punjab.
The situation in Mizoram is reminiscent of the situation in Kerala which also had a high COVID-19 positivity rate despite a high vaccination rate. During August, the R value in Mizoram remained higher than 1 and experts had indicated this to be a cause for concern.
Mizoram is one among seven states where 27 districts having a COVID-19 positivity rate of over 10 per cent are located according to data from October 15-21, 2021. The other states besides Mizoram include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland.
| State | Percentage of population administered single dose | Percentage of population administered two doses |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 51 | 33.4 |
| Assam | 57.8 | 20.2 |
| Kerala | 71.6 | 35.8 |
| Manipur | 39.9 | 20.1 |
| Meghalaya | 33.9 | 18.2 |
| Mizoram | 59.3 | 41.7 |
| Nagaland | 32.7 | 21.3 |
| India | 53.2 | 22.2 |
Source: covid19india.org
Six of the affected states are in the North East. It is not clear as to why this region has a higher positivity rate since four of the affected states have provided at least one dose of the vaccine to more than 50 per cent of the population. Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland have managed to provide the first dose of the vaccine to only between 20 and 40 per cent of the population.
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