IT Desk
From the recent trend of the positivity rate in Manipur, it is easy to comprehend that the curve is yet to be flattened with the various measures taken up by district administrators by imposing lockdown or curfew for months. The curve should have been flattened by now if we are going in the right direction. True, the authority is taking many measures to curb the spread of the disease but showing no results as of now – Are we going the wrong way?
There have been many discussions in many platforms and opinions suggested by experts that the increasing COVID-19 cases are due to many people going for Home isolation. Yes, it is true that opting for Home isolation in houses where there are no separate bathroom/toilet and room, maybe the root cause for the increase in the COVID-19 cases. Sadly, no one ponders to think why the majority of the people are going for Home isolation instead of going to Covid Care Centre or Institutional Quarantine.
People nowadays are informed of what is happening in and around the globe without waiting for Newspapers or news program, all thanks to the booming Information Technology. Information gathering is much easier nowadays as it was a decade ago. Through social-media or messaging platform, people are now informed about how patients are being treated at Hospitals or CCC and the condition on which the positive inmates are kept. Off late, there have been many incidents of doctors and nurses neglecting patients in CCC and Hospitals. Imphal Times had also reported about how things are at in the state’s premier medical institute, RIMS in its earlier edition.
Information received by Imphal Times from various sources (mainly from patients getting treated at hospitals and CCC), indicates that the inmates are neglected most of the time and the patients are left on their own. The doctors and nurses don’t bother to check each and every inmate regularly for any problems or say improvement, and all they do is give advice via phone whenever approached. Yes, it is understandable that the doctors and nurses are also scared of this deadly disease, but isn’t it that they have sworn and took the oath to render their duty for treatment of patients in need. The Frontline workers may have other contrasting stories to counter this allegation, like lack of equipment provided to them or overworking conditions and so on. Whereas, these need to be brought to the attention of the concerned authorities instead of neglecting the patients citing such reasons, which is another story.
If proper care is being given to the patients admitted at such Covid Care Centres or at Covid wards at hospitals, many won’t hesitate to admit themselves at such centre. Instead, people are going for Home isolation as they feel they will be neglected and left on their own at the Centre, and think it is better to get themselves treated at home, surrounded by their loved ones. Also, not to forget the psychological breakdown of the elderly when they are admitted to such centre and getting neglected. It is no open secret that such breakdown hampers the recovery and may ultimately lead to fatalities.
Government should plan meticulously on how the condition of such centre can be improved. In addition to proper care and support of these patients, many other facilities can be made available for the inmates to improve their mental health. If all of these are addressed, many would not hesitate to admit themselves at the Covid Care Centre or hospitals.
Instead, people are thinking that they will get worse after lodging themselves sans care and support. In short, people have started to lose faith in the medical institution of this state. Restoring the faith of the people is the need of the hour otherwise, more and more people will hide the illness instead of coming out for testing and ultimately, increasing the number of cases in the state. Mass testing is not the way forward to curb this disease and is not a feasible solution. The government should devise ways so as to restore people’s faith in the arrangement made by the government.
