Nagaland: COVID-19 positive cases cross 100 mark in the state; Yet another person sent home tests positive

June 6, 2020: Nagaland has reported 13 fresh new Covid-19 positive cases thereby crossing the 100 mark, taking the count of the total number of confirmed cases to 107 in the state.

These 13 people were returnees from Chennai and are identified as residents of Dimapur district. These patients are all males.

Just a day before, on Friday, 14 new patients were found to be Covid-19 positive, these set of people being Chennai returnees too.

Although there has been no death until now in the state due to Covid-19, this is a matter of concern as the state lacks proper medical infrastructure. There is no medical college in the state and over the past decades, the health care sector has been highly neglected in the state.

So much so that 2 individuals who had been sent back home on returning to the state without waiting for the results of their medical tests done to be out have been tested positive later on.

A Chennai returned woman was sent back home in Peren district on Thursday with 16 others without getting her test results. She was later on found to be positive.

In a similar incident that took place late last month, another man who was sent back home from a quarantine centre at Kohima without awaiting test results along with 150 others in Tuensang district of Nagaland was also found to be positive later on.

After the Tuensang fiasco, the existing Empowered Committee responsible for monitoring the Covid-19 situation in the state, headed by the Additional Chief Secretary was dissolved and another High Powered Committee under the leadership of the Chief Minister himself was constituted.

Making yet another blunder, this time with the Peren returned incident, the state has become answerable for all these repeated mistakes.

Dimapur district which alone has reported maximum positive cases has only 1 ventilator and 1 ICU in the district’s only district hospital, the Dimapur District hospital. This
as given rise to concern among the masses as to where would patients be admitted and how will they be treated with such a lack of medical facilities.

This puts a question of the credibility of the state’s handling of the situation although it claims to be fully prepared to combat the pandemic.

Slamming the government for these blunders, opposition leader and former Nagaland Chief Minister TR Zeliang tweeted, “A mistake that endangers lives is inexcusable and a crime. Apart from various other instances, these two is proof enough of how ill-prepared the State is to combat this pandemic. Government’s honesty and sincerity is the need of the hour.”