Manipur: State must not conceal data on COVID-19 death rate, says Congress

Imphal: Amid the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Manipur Congress party on Tuesday have urged the state government to act swiftly to save the lives of the people in the state.

During a virtual press conference held by MLA K Meghachandra through the Indian National Congress-Manipur official Facebook page, the party offered suggestions and demands to fight the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

Congress MLA K Meghachandra gave the following suggestions and demands to the state BJP government:

1. All district hospitals must have a minimum of 100 beds fully equipped with ventilators, ICU, and all necessary facilities to fight COVID-19 in all the districts immediately.

2. Rs 1 crore must be immediately released by the government to every MLA to economically empower MLAs in fighting the COVID-19 second wave in the state.

3. Permanent recruitment of doctors and nurses by the state government to take care of the shortage of doctors, nurses and staff in the health department and district hospitals to fight the COVID-19.

4. Immediate step to increase the percentage of vaccinated people in the state, by having more vaccinations per day and vaccinating the persons between the age of 18 and 44.

5. Ambulance vehicles must be increased in every district to combat COVID-19.

6. ICU beds, oxygen beds, beds well-equipped with ventilator must be increased to reduce the death rate in the state.

7. Daily positivity rate and death rate must be shared for all the districts and the overall rates for the state by the government. The state government must not conceal the data on the COVID-19 death rate and COVID-19 positivity rate every day.

8. The cost of hospitalisation and treatment at private hospitals due to the COVID-19 must be fixed and regulated by the government so that the poor COVID-19 patients do not suffer financially.

9. COVID-19 management systems must be de-centralised instead of being centralised and controlled by one committee or limited bureaucracy. De-centralised COVID-19 management is necessary to attend to issues in hill districts and rural areas of the state.

10. The results of the genome sequencing of the COVID-19 samples from Manipur must be officially released so that the types of variants of the COVID-19 can be known.

11. Groceries, food delivery systems, online food delivery and home delivery system must be exempted from restrictions under curfew or containment notification by the government.

12. Food supplies to the COVID-19 patients, food supplies to the poor and the needy people during curfew must not be stopped by the government during curfew.

13. Banks must be exempted from restrictions under curfew so that the ATMs have cash for the people to use for treatment and other essential purposes.

14. Relief and immediate help must be extended to the family of the COVID-19 deaths.

15. Rs 29.2 crore which is already released by the Centre to Manipur, meant to be used in fighting COVID-19 at a Panchayat level, must reach villagers on time.

16. The government must release Rs 485.5 crore, which is already released from the Centre to the state, for MGNREGA to the villagers during the COVID-19 pandemic immediately.