Our Reporter
Dimapur, March 7 (EMN): State Nodal Officer for Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, department of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Nyanthung Kikon said there is growing distrust among the people leading to Covid vaccine hesitancy, thus creating a wall between public and government agencies.
While sharing on Covid management and vaccination, Kikon said that the news of the first Covid positive case in Nagaland shook the state machinery as the pandemic was new to everyone. However, Kikon stated that the dissemination of information by the media in Nagaland was ‘very mature and responsible’ and it rose up to the occasion.
Kikon was speaking at a one-day media workshop ‘Vartalap’ organised by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Kohima at Hotel Saramati Dimapur, on Monday.
When questioned about the low Covid testing rates in Nagaland, Kikon informed that people are ‘reluctant to do tests and even apprehensive to give their contacts’. He also added that in the second wave, five to eight people were traced, but in the third wave, contact tracing was done for those who were symptomatic and at high risk.
Furthermore, Kikon added that it was statistically proven that people who received both doses of vaccines were less likely to get hospitalised and less than 1% of such people had contributed to the mortality figures. He stated that in the first wave, 84 people had died, in the second 633, and in the third, it was 32.
He also stated that even the government has its shortcomings in regard to the dissemination of information on schemes and most of it has not been able to reach targeted beneficiaries in the desired manner.
Kikon said that a lot of work needs to be done with regard to the flow of information, especially between various governmental agencies and media.
Kikon said that it is also the responsibility of various government agencies to be transparent in its layout of various schemes to the public.
He added that the flow of information must not be one way but an open-ended flow of information between government agencies and media outlets, and expressed that if they partner in a more transparent manner, then it would surely reach the target audience and beneficiaries of the schemes.
District Public Relation Officer, Dimapur, Lolano Khuvung Patton said that central and government schemes were not penetrating the target groups ‘as most of the time after launching of schemes, nothing much is heard about their implementation and people remain unaware’.
Patton stressed the importance of effective, integrated and coordinated communication between the implementing agencies and the different media houses in educating the people on the various government welfare schemes implemented in the state.
Assistant Manager of Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) Khrolou Koza Lohe spoke on NSDMA and its role in prevention and responding to disasters in Nagaland.
Lohe also discussed the efficient and effective response to disasters, especially in the rural areas and easy access of information from NSDMA officials during such events.