‘Early detection, isolation & treatment are panacea for COVID-19 management’, DC, Hailakandi

September 3: Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner, Megh Nidhi Dahal fervently appealed to the people to come forward voluntarily to get themselves tested under RAT to prevent further community transmission of COVID-19.

Expressing concern over the COVID-19 situation in the district, Deputy Commissioner Dahal said the only solution to contain COVID-19 is for early detection under RAT and isolation. “Early detection and isolation is the only way out to prevent further community transmission. If the disease spreads fast affecting a large population, then the situation will drift to a point where it will not be at all possible to provide treatment to scores of people at a time given the limited infrastructure in the district together with the challenges that crop up due to frontline health workers and doctors getting afflicted with the disease. Given the situation, testing under RAT, immediate isolation and timely treatment are the panacea for dealing with the situation.”

Appealing to everyone to come forward for RAT test, Dahal said early testing coupled with quick detection and isolation of positive cases is the only way to best manage the COVID-19 situation. Dahal said people should not ignore ordinary symptoms like cough and cold and fever and not take any chances citing several cases in which patients coming to hospitals succumbed to the disease without getting any treatment. The Deputy Commissioner said many a lives could have been saved if the patients had come to the hospital on time.

Urging the youth to come forward for testing, Dahal said, “The youth may feel that they do not have symptoms but they should not take chances. They are exposing the elderly and vulnerable persons at their home. If they get tested, they are preventing the disease from spreading in the family.”

Allaying apprehension and doubts in the minds of people, Dahal said elaborate arrangements are being made in the COVID Care Centres to make the stay of positive patients comfortable. “We are making the best of arrangements at the COVID Care Centres and in isolation wards of hospitals with food, treatment and other facilities. Rs.500 is spent for food for each patient besides fruits are also provided. We are getting positive feedback from the patients discharged and they have been satisfied with the slew of arrangements being made and the manner in which they were nursed and taken care of.”

Dahal said the administration has no problem in allowing asymptomatic COVID persons under home isolation so long he or she fulfills all the conditions laid down. However, he was quick to add that those under home isolation have to do so at their own risk as ‘doctors cannot visit home and check their health status’.