Jackson Tayeng

NAMSAI, Apr 8: The 21-day lockdown period to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is about to end in the next one week, however the District Hospital Namsai is yet to receive the required Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and viral transport media (VTM).
Namsai was in the news as 6 people from here had attended the Nizamuddin Markaz at Delhi which has since turned out to be a Covid-19 hotspot.
 'As of now, we don’t have any positive cases but there is travel history of 6 people to the Nizamuddin event and even the person who tested positive had stayed at Namsai. So we cannot take any chances,’ said DRCHO Dr Tope Yomcha.
We require good numbers of PPE right from simple gloves to testing kits and as of now we have managed locally. However god forbid if there is any positive case, we would be in shortage of PPE, lamented the DRCHO. 
Besides the hospital is also facing shortage of VTM  with only 14 VMTs left.
'For a single test, we need four sets at one time. But due to shortage, we are compromising and using only two,’ informed the DRCHO. Even the Flu Center needs full PPE but we are providing minimum basic equipment like gloves, masks and sanitizer only due to shortage, he added.
 ‘We want to test as much as possible people with travel history  but due to shortages of  VTM we are unable to do so,' he said adding that authority has assured to provide sufficient VTM and PPE soon. As of now Namsai district has sent samples of 36 people, out of which 35 have tested negative and one test is pending. 

'The second test of the 6 persons who visited Nizamuddin Markaz at Delhi has come negative,' confirmed  the DRCHO.
When asked about total people under home quarantine, Dr Yomcha disclosed that at least 514 are in home quarantine and  78 are in quarantine centres at Namsai, Chongkham and Lekang. However, 62 persons have been discharged after completing their quarantine.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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