COVID-19: Pijush Hazarika directs Hailakandi administration to strengthen bed capacity

July 21: Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Pijush Hazarika instructed the Hailakandi district administration to make provisions for another 1,500 beds in COVID Care Centres in view of rising number of COVID-19 positive cases in the district. Reviewing the COVID-19 situation at DC’s conference hall with MP, MLAs, DC, senior officials of the administration and health department here on Monday, Minister Hazarika asked the administration to convert three-four facility quarantine centres with best of facilities into COVID Care Centres with provisions for another 1,500 beds for rendering best of medical care and treatment to the affected persons.

The Minister asked the administration to ensure the presence of doctors at the COVID Care Centres for extending medical care and treatment to the patients. Appreciating the role of CHOs, Hazarika said the afflicted patients must be nursed by doctors stationed at the COVID Care Centres. He urged the officials of district administration and health department to provide vitamins and other supplements to boost the immunity of the COVID-19 patients. Deputy Commissioner, Megh Nidhi Dahal assured the minister that arrangements would be made to place doctors at the COVID Care Centres. At present the district has a total of 54 doctors.

The Minister also directed the administration to ensure quality food to the inmates under quarantine centres and on time. Deputy Commissioner, Dahal informed the minister that the administration is mulling the idea of setting up a community kitchen in order to serve hot quality food to the facility quarantine inmates and that, too, on time. Lauding the idea, Hazarika asked Dahal to go ahead with it suggesting overall control over its functioning.

Regarding imposing further restrictions to curb growing number of positive cases, with Hailakandi registering the highest number of coronavirus cases in the Barak Valley, Hazarika asked Dahal to hold deliberations with senior citizens and people’s representatives before sending a proposal to the Chief Secretary. The DC apprised the minister that he had already had video conferencing with senior citizens and media persons on the COVID-19 situation which enabled the administration to get invaluable feedback on how to contain the spread of the disease.

Hazarika further urged the MLAs to help the administration in identifying designated places for cremation or burial of COVID-19 victims in their respective constituencies and to spread the message loud and clear to the masses that ‘there is no chance of anyone getting infected from a person who succumbed to coronavirus disease’. The Minister asked the police administration to strictly enforce wearing of masks and maintenance of social distancing norms to keep the disease at bay. It was unanimously resolved in the meeting that a fine of Rs.1,000 would be imposed as penalty on those not wearing masks.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner, Dahal gave a power point presentation on the COVID-19 situation and the slew of initiatives taken by the administration to ramp up the health infrastructure in the district. Reeling out facts, Dahal said the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases in the district which stands at 12.7 days is much lower than the state’s and national average.

Under the Rapid Antigen Test, Dahal disclosed that 100 swab tests were conducted out of which 13 tested negative while 87 turned out to be negative. The Deputy Commissioner also revealed that 25 persons were detected coronavirus positive in the community. Total number of persons screened so far stands at 9,028 with 6,201 persons released from home quarantine and 147 under facility quarantine centres. 447 persons have been discharged on being cured with 300 active cases remaining, as on Monday. Two persons succumbed to the disease.The Deputy Commissioner also apprised the minister about the shortage of doctors, infrastructure deficiency, non availability of ICU and ventilator, shortage of ambulance, non availability of cleaners, among others.

MP, Silchar, Dr.Rajdeep Roy, MLAs Nizamuddin Choudhury and Suzamuddin Laskar, District Development Commissioner, Vikram Dev Sharma, Additional Deputy Commissioner, EL Faihraem, Circle Officers, District Project Officer, DDMA, Rupjoy Maibangsa, Branch Officer, DDMA, Rahul Doley, Joint Director, Health, Dr. A.Barman, Additional SP, Kulendra Nath Deka, Assistant Commissioner, Parikshit Phukan and other officials were present. Later, Minister Hazarika visited the SK Roy designated COVID-19 Civil Hospital and took stock of the situation there.