Our Correspondent
Kohima, July 5 (EMN): The recent spike in Covid-19 positive cases in Peren, Mon and some cases in Kohima, has raised concern about infections within the quarantine centres, and Health officials opine that there is a need to inculcate a stronger sense of discipline among those undergoing quarantine.
Principal Director for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Vizolie Suokhrie, while speaking at a press conference on Sunday in Kohima, shared that the department is closely monitoring the transmission and the recent increase of positive cases.
He informed that they are in touch with the districts concerning how to implement/ensure disciplinary measures in the quarantine centres.
“Unless we do that, the more days we keep them in quarantine centres, the more danger it poses. We need to see that discipline in quarantine centres cannot be done by government alone but requires individual responsibility and participation of civil society, so that we are able to contain the transmission even among the quarantine inmates,” he said.
Suokhrie suggested that village councils and the civil societies should work together with the administration, police and Health department.
The doctor, citing the spike of cases in Peren and Mon district, said that transmission is bound to happen unless ‘we take precaution and maintain discipline among the returnees’.
To his surprise, a birthday was even celebrated in one of the quarantine centres, which is a serious issue, he said.
“Your safety is your responsibility,” he said in a message directed at the inmates, and further advised them not to spread infection, and also not get infected, by taking precautions and maintaining social distance, hygiene and wearing a mask.
He asserted that ‘we need to live a new lifestyle, which we have never done before, to contain the virus and also to avoid many other infectious diseases’.
Suokhrie informed that they had a discussion with the Peren district administration, Health department along with the police and worked out some strategies.
Health officials from the directorate would be assisting Peren district for a week starting July 6.
“Along with them, we are also sending some lab technicians and data entry operators to assist them clear the backlogs they have,” he stated.
He also reminded that three officers have already been posted there.
With regard to Mon district, he stated that they are supplementing whatever they require, adding “we are sending adequate test kits along with PPE or whatever requirements they have”.
Suokhrie informed that concerning the positive cases of Army personnel, ‘as a technical department, we have written to them for discipline, proper containment and we have also given some information to the villagers not to panic but to learn to live with the virus’.
“There are lots of rumours doing the rounds each day, and please do not believe in those rumours,” he appealed, and stated that they will not misguide the people but give the facts to everyone ‘without fear and without hiding it’.
The doctor also informed that out of 96 returnees who were released from facility quarantine in Peren, 32 of them tested positive; but they were all in community quarantine centres even after the release and nobody was sent home.
Suokhrie stated that there are no shortages of medicines and PPE or any other required equipment.
He informed that almost every week, they have a video conference with all the district officials to find out the status. He further said that they are continuously providing and making it (safety kits) freely available to the healthcare workers and frontline workers, and making sure that there is no shortage for them.
Test results of the primary contacts of the three frontline workers in Kohima, who had tested positive for Covid-19, have returned negative, according to Health officials.
More than 400 contacts, including primary and secondary contacts, have been traced, it was informed.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday in Kohima, Dr. Vizolie Suokhrie said that the department is fortunate that no one (primary and secondary contacts), in relation to the frontline workers, had tested positive yet.
Be it primary contact, secondary contact or otherwise, all these cases have tested negative so far and “we should be very happy about that,” he said.
“The most important thing is the primary contacts of the positive cases. When the primary contacts are negative, that is the biggest relief,” he added.
Suokhrie said that those primary contacts were still under isolation and the department won’t release them until the second test is done.
He also said that ‘no system is perfect’; and in case surveillance fails or misses out some pockets during the process of contact tracing, the department will help if they ‘come forward voluntarily’.
Suokhrie said that those working in Bethel Kitchen who wants to voluntarily go for sample testing can directly go to the Naga Hospital Authority Kohima or co-ordinate with the chief medical officer of Kohima district for testing facility.
Be it at district or state or local-level, he said that there is panic among the people. Therefore, the Health department will be coming out with a revised SOP, to do away with such situations, he informed.
In the case of Nagaland, most of the positive cases are asymptomatic and they belong to an ‘energetic age group.’ That is why, fast recovery is expected, he added.
“Some people are spreading rumours that the government is hiding positive persons of some secretariat officers. But there is no such thing. We are very clear about the declared results. There is nothing like that,” he said.
Further, he said that none of the primary contacts of the NHAK worker from PWD had turned out to be positive.
State nodal officer of IDSP, Dr. Nyanthung Kikon, said that as per the movement chart of the officer and the driver, they did not come in close contact with the persons who were working at Bethel Kitchen. He added that contact tracing of these positive persons will be expanded.
Kikon clarified that these positive cases do not fit into the criteria of local transmission. “But it has gone out from some of the quarantine centres and some of the frontline workers have been infected, which is inevitable knowing the infectious nature of coronavirus,” he said.