<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
At a time when the need of the hour was for close and co-ordinated working relationship among frontline soldiers engaged in combating the COVID-19, the incident in Dimapur on April 3 was shocking and unwarranted. So far, the statements on media alleged that a doctor working as part of the Dimapur district COVID-19 team, was accosted and beaten up by some Special Task Force(STF) personnel on duty at Purana Bazar at around 11.30 p.m.. The spate of immediate condemnations from various organisations followed thick and fast. The entire nation including Nagaland are currently on lockdown and Dimapur also under curfew so as to prevent mass gathering and ensure social distancing. Such incidents can be avoided if those on COVID-19 duty understand that they have to act with restraint. Be that as it may, it is hoped that in future, such matters are handled with sensitivity by parties involved and action taken as per the rule of law. The fight against COVID-19 especially in Dimapur, is crucial, as commented earlier in this column. Being the district which has the highest population and also the most densely populated ; no effort should be spared to ensure that COVID-19 does not make its presence felt. An outbreak in the district could spell huge problems for the entire district and the state. The authorities have planned well and credit must go to all those involved in the day-to-day management and monitoring of the measures to combat COVID-19. While appreciating the efforts, it must also be mentioned that the ground reality paints a picture of certain drawbacks. This newspaper had interacted with some of those involved in the combat against COVID-19. Some were from the medical fraternity. They were firmly committed though they were concerned over need of protective gear and adequate manpower to ensure continuous engagement. On the other hand, the other frontline soldiers- police- were performing long duration duties that extended from six to eight hours shifts. In addition, some who were interviewed, were also concerned that they did not receive the necessary kits such as sufficient masks and sanitising liquid even as they were involved with large number of people while enforcing the lockdown. Some of the police on duty had also disclosed that they had to hitch-hike to work and back on non-police vehicles. These are minor flaws observed which the authorities have to urgently address. The other big picture is that so far, the anti-COVID-19 measures included disclosure of travel from other places or exhibiting symptoms that warrant self-quarantine in case of other ailments but not COVID-19 or being in contact with COVID-19 infected persons. This method is largely dependent upon the cooperation of public. Perhaps the next step would be to compel wider screening of persons having any ailment similar to COVID-19 symptoms. Unless the dragnet of screening is widened, the chances of the virus escaping detection will increase. This leaves little option but for people with fever or cough to come out in numbers for undertaking stricter screening and even undertaking swab tests. For this, the state will have to provide sufficient number of screening kits and centres and for collection of swabs. The fight against COVID-19 is a long drawn and the worst may not be over yet even after the 21-day lockdown ends. This is to be noted if the second wave of mutated COVID-19 emerges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More needs to be done<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[685],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208797\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}