State chief minister, Neiphiu Rio Thursday assured the people of the state that all efforts were being made by the state government to ensure foolproof containment of novel coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19).
On Thursday, the 18-tonne consignment with highly sophisticated equipments required for the lab, from Mumbai, along with technical experts arrived here on Thursday on a special Indian Air Force (IAF) C-17 Globemaster flight.
This followed governor RN Ravi taking up the matter with Union defence minister Rajnath Singh to expedite sending of the equipments required for setting up the lab.
In his message to the people of the state on state’s preparedness to fight COVID-19, Rio said that the state government and all its agencies were working tirelessly with active cooperation of the people and the civil society organisations in combating the challenge of the pandemic. Rio informed that an IAF transport plane delivered the first batch of consignment of equipment for BSL 3 Testing Lab that was being set up at Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK). He said setting up of the lab would “fulfil a pressing need of our state as we would not have to depend on laboratories outside the state.” Rio said process of setting up a test lab at CISHR (Referral Hospital) in Dimapur was also going on.
Following a resident of Dimapur testing positive for COVID-19 in Guwahati on April 12, 2020, the chief minister said work of sealing the affected areas and tracing contacts was going on.He said 25 district surveillance teams were conducting active surveillance. Till now, the chief minister said 1391 persons have been interviewed and screened and 52 close contacts have been traced. He also said that the samples of co-passengers of the flight in which the affected person travelled were also being tested.
Further, Rio said that the state government has extended cooked food and dry rations to more than 79,000 stranded persons, daily wagers, migrant labourers and other needy persons. He added that more help was being planned for such people. Admitting that national lockdown measures have caused hardships to many people from Nagaland staying outside the state, the chief minister, however, informed that their welfare was being looked after by a cell headed by a nodal officer.
He said that they were also being provided help from the chief minister’s relief fund (CMRF) through various organisations. Out of Rs. 2.95 crore donated in the CMRF including opening balance, Rio said an amount of Rs. 2.32 crore has been disbursed to deputy commissioners, Nagaland houses and other organizations.
Further, he said that a state level war room against COVID-19 has also been made functional in the Nagaland Civil Secretariat headed by the chief secretary. Rio said the control centre was working round the clock as a single point to address all issues and matters related to the present situation.
The chief minister stated that he was personally supervising the preparations and the cabinet ministers and advisors and even opposition MLAs were contributing their bit to reach out to the districts.
Stating that health workers, doctors, police personnel, municipal staff and the entire government machinery was working at the risk of their life, the chief minister said they needed all help and support.
The chief minister has, therefore, appealed to all sections of citizens including tribal hohos, civil society organisations, elected representatives and the people at large to help the government in these difficult times.