Asserting that citizens of Longleng were worried about the poor condition of district’s lone hospital in the event of an outbreak, the apex Phom organisations—Phom Peoples’ Council (PPC) and Phom Students’ Conference (PSC)—have served an ultimatum on the state government to provide basic necessary human resources and medical equipment in a day or two.
In an open letter to the state chief minister, PPC vice president Tenchem Phom and PSC president A Mane Phom warned that failure to meet their demands the two apex bodies would take their own course of action and the state government would alone be held responsible for any untoward incident that could arise in the district.
The signatories pointed out that the Phom people in the district were faced with worst kind of preparedness.
They said that the lone hospital had only one portable ventilator and was yet to have an anaesthesiologist.
Further, they pointed out that as per the government guidelines there should not be any transfer of positive cases from one place to the other, but to be treated at the respective district COVID-19 hospital. However, they said it appeared COVID-19 hospital Longleng would not be able to handle the situation without an anaesthesiologist, sufficient ventilators and other medical equipment to treat the patients besides the absence of fully established ICU.
Meanwhile, PPC and PSC have appreciated the district administration and all the frontline workers particularly the medical department for the preparedness being carried out with little resource that was being available to tackle the pandemic.