The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) on Monday urged the state government to give focus on post COVID management protocols at present, saying many awareness programmes on COVID precautionary measures have already been held.
Speaking to the media at Congress Bhavan, Imphal, vice president of MPCC Moirangthem Hemanta said that the state government must find out why COVID recovery rate of the state is lesser than the national average.
"The health portfolio which is currently held by the chief minister should be given to other MLAs since he is busy handling other departments at the same time," he stated.
Hemanta further said that the state government can arrange mobile dispensary service in far-flung areas and conduct free medicals camps since people are scared to visit the hospitals in Imphal.
The cabinet decision to recruit 300 doctors and 106 nurses should be materialised so that they can be utilised in filling up gaps in the health sector at hill districts. Go to village mission should be strengthened since it is the right time to see the difficulties and suffering of people in hill districts during the pandemic, he stated.
The MPCC vice president maintained that more than 1,000 patients used to visit RIMS OPD in a day but the number has decreased to only about 100 during the pandemic as per findings of MPCC.
MPCC general secretary WL Hangshing stressed that imposing curfew at night is not necessary since many activities of the state ended in the afternoon. He said that the health issues in hill areas in respect to COVID-19 are different as people do not have much awareness of COVID-19 protocols when compared with people living in the valley districts.
Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic as well as taking care of the state economy should be balanced, he said. Besides, instead of directly following the SOP issued by the centre, the state can choose relevant guidelines from it since the situation of Manipur is different from mainland Indian states, he added.
