AIZAWL, June 28 - With three more persons testing positive, Mizoram�s COVID-19 tally rose to 151 on Sunday.
Two of the new cases are from Mamit district and one is from Aizawl, an official statement said.
Two of them are Maharashtra returnees while one returned from Delhi, it said. All of them were under institutional quarantine and asymptomatic.
Of the 151 cases, 96 are currently active while 55 people have recovered.
Mizoram Health & Family Welfare Department has said that installation of TrueNat lab in district civil hospitals is more preferable than RT-PCR for COVID-19 tests in view of the decline in number of samples and long procedure involved in setting up BSL-2 labs.
The statement followed a hue and cry over a RT-PCR machine, donated to Lunglei district civil hospital by former minister and Congress MLA Zodintluanga, lying idle at the Deputy Commissioner�s office.
The machine reached Lunglei on Friday afternoon. It was received by hospital authorities and was placed in the district hospital. Later, it was hurriedly shifted to the DC office.
Sources said the Thorang constituency (under Lunglei district) MLA purchased the machine from his LAD fund.
Even though RT-PCR is considered the best test for COVID-19, the health department maintained that the three RT-PCR machines at the Zoram Medical College laboratory are more than enough for the State for the time being.
At the onset of coronavirus outbreak, a BSL-2 laboratory, which was being set up at the ZMC for Tuberculosis testing and nearing completion, was hurriedly upgraded for testing COVID-19.
The statement further said that besides the existing three RT-PCR machines at the ZMC lab, one more machine would arrive shortly. All the backlog of samples have now been tested, it added.
Currently, two TrueNat labs are operational at the Lunglei civil hospital.
The statement said an expert team was sent to Champhai, Lunglei and Siaha districts and its findings suggested that TrueNat lab (also known as mini RT-PCR) is more preferable than RT-PCR, considering the dip in COVID-19 cases in the State.
The statement said the expert team found that though the district hospitals have rooms for installation of RT-PCR machines, the rooms will need renovation as none of them have laboratory equipment.
