Scaling new heights in infection and deaths : Critical situation
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 17, 2021 -

The situation is critical, very critical. This does not mean that one should press the alarm button, but there is the need to acknowledge the critical situation.

RIMS and JNIMS are being stretched to its limit.

A prominent private medical hospital, Raj Medicity has already suspended admission of Covid and non-Covid patients, citing lack of medical oxygen to meet its increasing demand.

Shija Hospital too must be over stretched and what happens if RIMS, JNIMS and Shija Hospital too have to reach such a situation that they can no longer take in new patients?

Frightening it certainly is, and this is where the Government will need to study suggestions and opinions offered by different political leaders and political parties.

One such suggestion has come from Thangmeiband AC MLA Kh Joykisan who has mooted the idea of each MLA donating Rs 20 lakh from the local area development fund and help the Government buy the much needed medical oxygen.

This is a sound suggestion though it is not yet very clear whether the State Government would be able to procure medical oxygen from outside given that India as a whole is reeling under the impact of the second wave of the virus and many have died due to lack of medical oxygen.

How about augmenting the production of the existing oxygen plants here?

The Government must have studied this, but letting the people know of what the Government plans to do will go a long way in fostering a sense of confidence in the Government.

The call for a special session of the Assembly to solely discuss the Covid situation is also extremely timely.

This is a disaster and the time now cannot be more opportune for a special Assembly session to be convened to discuss what may be done to plug loopholes, if there are any.

Taking everyone along is the need of the hour and this is the time for the BJP led Government at Imphal to reach out to all political parties and all political leaders, irrespective of which political party they belong to.

The number of positive cases is also rising at a pace which was not seen in the first wave and this would not have gone unnoticed to the Government.

The positivity rate is also high, given that of the around 30 lakh population, 39,052 people have tested positive and this is a high figure by any stretch of the imagination. So is the number of deaths at 562, the highest number of deaths in a single day standing at 20.

Now with reports coming in of one private hospital suspending admissions and more testing positive, the fatality number will only rise and so will the number of infected persons.

The Government is doing all it can at the moment, but certain questions at the moment may be raised.

How judiciously is the contact tracing process being carried out is a question that comes to mind.

How well are the infected persons asked about who he or she came into contact in the recent past ?

Ask anyone who has recovered from the virus and one will get a fair idea and this is where contact tracing will need to be given more push.

Test, trace and treat is a mantra which the Government cannot afford to overlook, for it stands that there could be many asymptomatic people moving around the general population.

The containment zone tag in Imphal Municipal and Greater Imphal areas continues and at different district headquarters too, but if contact tracing is not adhered to, then such measures may not yield the desired results.