AIZAWL, Oct 28 - In a setback to the Mizoram Government�s sustained efforts to maintain the record of zero COVID-19 death in the State, a 62-year-old man from here became the virus casualty by succumbing to the infection.
�Lalsangkhuma, aged 62, a resident of Dawrpui locality in Aizawl died at 12:00pm today at Zoram Medical College due to COVID-19,� the Mizoram Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) tweeted this afternoon.
According to the DIPR, the deceased had underlying health conditions and had been treated at the ICU of the medical college since October 18 after he tested positive for COVID-19.
As per the standard operating procedure, his body � sealed in a sanitized coffin � was taken directly to the cemetery where the formal funeral ceremony was conducted by the Salvation Army, the denomination to which the deceased belonged.
Sources said Lalsangkhuma�s widow has also tested positive for the novel coronavirus and she is being treated in the same hospital. Their only child � a 14-year-old boy � was awaiting his COVID-19 test result at the time of the father�s death.
Meanwhile, Mizoram today reported 80 new cases of COVID-19, taking the State�s tally to 2,607.
An official release said that the new cases were detected after testing of 1,508 samples. The new patients include 27 students, 11 Indian Army personnel and one personnel of the Mizoram Armed Police (MAP).
The 11 Indian Army personnel are Mizoram residents who had come home on leave from Delhi, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir, while the MAP personnel had returned from Assam, the release added.
As many as 76 of the new cases have been reported from Aizawl district, two from Lawngtlai district and one case each from Khawzawl and Saitual districts.
Sixty-three of the fresh cases were locally transmitted, of which 14 were untraceable and the rest 17 patients have returned from other States.
Mizoram now has 374 active cases, while 2,233 people have already recovered from the disease.
The State capital, Aizawl, is under a weeklong lockdown, while the rest Mizoram is observing the COVID-19 No Tolerance Fortnight, the Government�s strategy to break the chain of local transmission.
