The Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) has questioned the state government on the daily oxygen demands of all districts in Manipur, number of functioning government ambulances, number of ICU facilities equipped with ventilators, doctors and staff in each district.
MPCC spokesperson Ningombam Bupendra Meitei on Saturday raised the questions to the state government and sought answers concerning its preparedness to prevent the third wave of COVID-19 in the state.
In a virtual press briefing held on Saturday, MPCC spokesperson Ningombam Bupendra Meitei said it is unfortunate for the BJP spokesperson to blame the public and the Congress accountable for Covid mess in the state as reported in the media.
Bupendra also asked the state government regarding the status report of black fungus (mucormycosis) cases in Manipur. Mentioning that the rising weekly death rate and positivity rate in the state is a big concern, he also suggested the need of having facilities to conduct RT-PCR tests in all district hospitals as rural infections had started rising with positivity rate of 17 per cent (260/1507) as recorded in IDSP-Covid update on May 14.
The spokesperson questioned the BJP government regarding the oxygen (Liquid Medical Oxygen in metric tonnes) allocation for Manipur from the central pool, projected demand of oxygen for Manipur and the number of oxygen requirements per day in the state.
Questioning the buffer stocks of oxygen for emergencies in the state, he raised apprehension whether the Oxygen Express train can reach Jiribam to bring oxygen in the state.
Bupendra also questioned the current stocks, average daily consumptions of oxygen (in metric tonnes), storage capacity for oxygen and re-filler as well as total metric tonnes of oxygen required for hospitals and refilling for Manipur.
Questioning when the oxygen supply will reach the Covid patients who are under home isolation, the spokesperson further asked the state government whether families of Covid patients who have died due to oxygen shortage in hospitals or home isolation will be compensated.
Other questions raised by the spokesperson included the amount released by the state government to buy pulse oximeters and medicines for providing them free of cost to home isolation Covid patients, as stated and posted by the chief minister on social media on Friday.
The questions also include the number of days for free vaccination in each district for people between the age group of 18-45, the timing for second dose of those vaccinated with first dose, and how long will the state government take to vaccinate all the eligible population
Bupendra further questioned the status of results for genomic sequencing of Covid samples sent from Manipur, the percentage of state GDP which has been utilised to combat the second wave of pandemic in the state and the amount released from the state exchequer to fight the second wave of Covid pandemic.
The MPCC spokesperson also questioned whether there is a dedicated 24 x7 war room on Covid situations in Manipur and whether the dashboard is functioning on a real time basis to combat the second wave of the pandemic in Manipur.
