Dimapur, April 14 (MExN): The Ao Students’ Union Dimapur (ASUD) today expressed displeasure at the state government’s level of preparedness in dealing with the COVID-19 and said that the first positive case has brought to light “many loopholes that have so far gone either unnoticed or unaddressed.”
It also alleged “blatant lack of coordination between the Medical Department and Healthcare units” and said that it was “evident in the manner in which the COVID suspect was first treated at a private hospital instead of the designated COVID hospital.”
For a state that has been boasting that it is ‘fully geared’ to fight the pandemic, but the ‘biggest embarrassment’ came in the form of a tweet from Assam’s Health Minister,’ an ASUD press release stated.
The ASUD demanded that frontline workers in Dimapur be provided adequate safety gears and markets be shut down completely and essential commodities be made available to the public through home delivery services.
“Social distancing has been a complete failure in the district and lack of proper monitoring has only encouraged increased panic-buying and thronging of markets,” it claimed.
“Now that the pandemic has made its presence felt in Nagaland, we urge the government to pursue containment in an aggressive manner,” it said.
Stating that the virus does not differentiate between the common man and a VIP, the ASUD also said that the government should not use different yardsticks for people of different social or economic status while dealing with the issue.
Meanwhile, the ASUD also stated that the quarantine facility set up by the government is in a questionable state with poor maintenance. As such, it questioned the concerned authority over the matter adding that “hygiene should be the top priority in these facilities.”
Stating that these instances exposes the “unstable foundation upon which our governance infrastructure is built” the ASUD urged the “leaders to be more proactive in their approach otherwise our war against COVID will never be won.”
