Morung Express News
Dimapur | April 13
The Dimapur District Hospital (DHD), which has found itself at the centre of the first positive COVID-19 case from Nagaland, has turned out contrary to the sense of assurance projected by the state government in late March.
While state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio had assured in March that the state is “fully geared up” to handle the eventuality of a COVID-19 breakout, over two weeks on, ground reports revealed that the wards are still under construction.
Minister for Health S Pangnyu Phom also said today that the COVID-19 hospital has 3 ventilators and 10 isolation wards (one bed each).
Meanwhile, a government health official informed that two wards out of the ten were still under construction and will “hopefully” be completed in about 2-3 days. An additional ventilator was procured and the count is now at 4, it was added.
Chief Secretary Temjen Toy also gave differing remarks on the status of the COVID Hospital on Monday. Disclosing that it is trying to find out on why the patient had to be referred to another state, Toy commented “we were ready for COVID cases with COVID Hospital right at Dimapur on standby with all the facilities for such cases, but that didn’t happen”.
He also assured that the state is taking all measures to ensure that such cases of referring patients to other hospitals in other states do not arise. However, as per details from Census 2011, Dimapur has a population of 1,22,834 which means Dimapur will have only one isolation bed per 12,283 people when the construction is completed. While only a fraction would get sick if it spreads in a community, the absolute number of persons who need care would be large.
