Our Reporter
Dimapur, May 27 (EMN): The Konyak Union, in a letter to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, has appealed for ‘immediate activation of biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) virology laboratory in Dimapur and to send returnees to Mon district only after confirming the test results."
The union has requested the chief minister to consider and implement its two-point demand “urgently” in view of a returnee from Chennai being tested positive for Covid-19 after reaching Tuensang district on May 27.
The BSL-2 lab in Dimapur should be installed and activated at the earliest, as only testing can help the officials to take a clear-cut decision for further subsequent action. All returnees should therefore, be tested in Dimapur and Kohima, it stated.
"Sending the returnees to Mon without confirming their testing results will expose all the returnees to more infections which will become burdensome for the already stressed arrangements in the district," it read.
The Konyak Union maintained that they were also working in 'full gear' and making other arrangements for purchase of Truelab Duo Real Time Quantitative micro PCR analyser and testing kits for use in case of an outbreak within the district. However, it shared its concern that if all the returnees are directly sent to the districts without being filtered in Dimapur and Kohima, 'the failure at the district will make the onerous efforts put in Dimapur and Kohima futile.'