H&FW prepares to come out with new SOP for testing
Principal Director Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) Dr. Vizolie Z Suokhrie said as there was no community spread of COVID-19 at the moment and so there was no need for total lockdown in the state as of now.
Addressing media here Sunday, Dr. Suokhrie however said a time might come when the situation would demand total lockdown. However, he said currently, all the COVID-19 cases were from quarantine centres and from the returnees. As COVID-19 was here to stay, he asked everyone to learn to live with the virus.
He said the highest spike had occurred in Peren and Mon in the last one week and for which the department was closely monitoring the situation.
He also said the main concern of the department was to ensure discipline at the quarantine centres. He also warned that infection at the centres would increase, if discipline was not maintained. He said the department was also working closely with the district administrations to implement discipline at the centres.
Dr. Suokhrie said participation of village councils and civil society groups in assisting the district administration would help in containing the virus from among the inmates.
More officials deputed to Peren: Dr. Suokhrie said more health officials have been deputed to Peren since a week back to assist the present team. He also said some lab technicians and data operators were also deputed to clear the backlog. He appealed to everyone not to be swayed by rumours as facts will be provided by department.
Commenting on indiscipline among returnees at quarantine centres, he said some inmates had even celebrated birthday parties. He therefore said unless proper discipline was maintained more transmission could take place.
He said transmission will happen unless people realise that “Your safety is your responsibility” and followed the basic guidelines by wearing mask in crowded places, maintain personal hygiene and social distance.
He also disclosed that family members of one NHAK employee– who had tested positive, turned out to be negative. He said it was a huge relief that all the primary contacts tested negative.
Dr. Suokhrie also said some people tended to panic whenever any COVID-19 positive case was reported. Towards this he said the department would revise the standard operating procedures (SOP) to ensure how best to ease the situation in containment zones.
To a query, Suokhrie claimed that BSL-3 laboratory at NHAK and BSL-2 in Dimapur did not have any backlog, adding that the BSL- 3 laboratory had tested more than 8,400 so far.
New SOP on swab test: The Health department was currently working on a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on swab test, which was likely to be released soon.
It was learnt that the new SOP was being worked out based on the two positive cases detected in Mon district where COVID recovered patients had tested positive again upon re-test on July 3.