Nagaland Tribes Council (NTC) has demanded World Health Organisation (WHO)-approved personal protective equipment (PPE) kits for frontline health workers and security personnel engaged in combating COVID-19 pandemic, besides Isolation wards and treatment facilities for patients as per WHO standards. The council in a release issued by its president Toniho Yepthomi and general secretary Nribemo Ngullie also sought emergency response teams, services like ambulance, sufficient stock of medicines, WHO-approved gadgets and essential commodities.
Seeking distribution of food and other essential items for poor and downtrodden, especially in rural areas, NTC also demanded COVID-19 rapid test kits in all sensitive areas, community-based health policing and isolation as per procedure, urgent BSL-3 lab and rapid test kits in Dimapur and tie-up between competent State government agencies and international groups for ensuring smooth and continuous supply of essential items and WHO-approved medical materials, besides demanding transparency and accountability in utilization of workforce, fund and resources.
NTC lamented that Nagaland, despite being the “second-oldest” State in the Northeast having achieved statehood in 1963, was way behind other North-eastern States that came into existence much later like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, etc, in terms of medical infrastructure. To buttress its point, the council pointed that Assam alone had seven medical colleges, while Manipur and Tripura had two each and Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Sikkim one each, even as Nagaland was yet to have one even now. It also mentioned how Nagaland still lacked a laboratory even to test COVID-19 samples and had to depend on its neighbouring States.
Referring to the various statements issued by the State government on lockdown and pointing to the apparent lack of preparedness, the council accused the government of lacking transparency and humanity. It asked whether the substandard and poor quality safety gears like PPE kits, as alleged by the frontline workers, were donated by the Union health ministry, including ventilators and other medical devices meant for COVID-19 patients.
If not, the organisation wanted to know, who were the middlemen responsible for supplying poor safety gears to frontline workers and thereby putting their lives at risk. Also, seeking to know whether the isolation wards and treatment facilities were funded by the Centre and who were handling construction or renovation and management of such poor facilities.
Admitting that the current pandemic was a humanitarian crisis, the council asked the government whether it had taken into confidence the medical professionals who are at the frontline. If yes, then it asked why was substandard equipment supplied to them.
Meanwhile, NTC also appealed to everyone not to stigmatise frontline health workers belonging to both government and private sectors. It also expressed the hope that the current crisis would be won as the whole world was tirelessly working on a war-footing to get rid of it.
Mentioning that medical professionals knew how to handle patients with protective gears, the council said even after the current COVID-19 crisis was over, the health centres would remain as everyone would require health service one day. Therefore, it called for put heads together, observe all protocols and safety measures and lend “our support in whatever way we can” so as to restore confidence among the health workers and the masses.