Correspondent
Serious allegations of mismanagement by the authorities maintaining the quarantine centre for Covid-19 positive individuals at Meriema here have been reported.
The centre is reportedly housing more than 300 inmates with majority of them staying for over a month now while some, after recovery, had also reported to have been re-infected.
A source, who was an inmate, informed this Correspondent on conditions of anonymity that many low-income inmates were skipping meals since they were running out of money and unable to pay the Rs. 300 per-day fee.
The source said that people who test positive for Covid-19 through random testing conducted at various colonies in Kohima arrive at the centre on taxis or other means. This leaves the drivers exposed to the virus because, after dropping the patients, they go home without going through the mandatory test, thus risking themselves to potential infection and raising chances of community transmission.
The centre is also reportedly overcrowded to accommodate the daily arrival of new inmates. Although most of the inmates were asymptomatic, lack of proper facilities, including water and electricity, is reportedly driving most of them into frustration.
It was also learnt that patients also arrive at the centre at their own convenient time without any prior intimation or notice to the officials in charge of the centre, thus making it harder for the management to put things into order, which also shows lack of coordination among the authorities concerned.
While separate quarantine centres have been arranged for frontline workers in other districts, apparently in Kohima they are placed at the same centres with patients whom they have been taking care of, the source said.
And with test results getting delayed, many inmates are also reportedly staying at the centre above the prescribed isolation and observation periods. The source further disclosed that none of these incidents are being reported since people were apprehensive to go near the centre.