The virus respect no religion, it attacks all humankinds, stop politicizing it
- Imphal Times Editorial :: April 04 2020 -

As according to information available from the www.covid19india.org number of confirmed COVID-19 case reaches 2640 in India.

Of these 192 patients have been recovered and 74 died. Total number of active positive COVID -19 case stands at 2374 as recorded at 3.30 pm today.

North East states of the country which was exempted from any cases till March 23, now have 20 COVID-19 positive cases with 16 in Assam, 2 in Manipur and 1 each in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram .

That means in 10 days the number of COVID-19 positive case rise to 20. Maximum positive case in the North East state spread from Delhi’s Nizamuddin area from those persons who had attended the religious congregation from March 12 to March 13.

According to the central government, as many as 16,000 people – including 2,100 foreigners from Canada, Nigeria, China, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Australia – visited Malaysia for the Tablighi Jamaat from January 1, before arriving in India and attending the event held from February 27 to March 1 in south Delhi’s Nizamuddin.

From there, as many as 824 devotees dispersed to Markaz in different parts of the country, and 216 of them stayed at Nizamuddin Markaz. Fearing that travels will be restricted, others might have left the country before the 21-day lockdown was announced on March 24.

Subsequently, it was found that many in the gathering showed symptoms of the contagious disease. Many tested positive, but it was only after the deaths that the cases were traced back to the event earlier this month.

A tweet from Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam says that all the 16 COVID -19 patients had attended a congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin West last month.

The First COVID -19 case in Manipur was reported on April 24 after a 23 years old girl who return to Manipur UK on March 21 was reported positive.

The girl followed strict regulation advice by the government and even her father was not affected leaving aside her other family members who were also tested negative.

The second patient tested positive was a person who attended the religious congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin West last month.

Unlike the 23 years old girl who have maintain strict regulation by isolating herself even from her family members and reporting timely to the health department, the 2nd person tested positive just two days back reportedly violated all health advisory issued by both the Union and state government.

According to a highly reliable source Imphal Times reported that during the religious congregation as many as 85 persons from the state of Manipur either attended or loiter around the area as per tracking record by telecom department, instead of trying to verify and co-operate with the government pour angry to the media report.

Later, some civil society leaders comes up saying that the number of persons attended the religious congregation was 10 while 9 have returned and 1 still staying somewhere outside the state.

Chief Minister N. Biren Singh also stated that his government received information from the Union Ministry about the possible presence of over 100 people from the state of Manipur in the religious congregation at South Delhi.

The Chief Minister however said that as it was track through mobile phone 10 persons have been confirmed returned while the location of others are not found at Manipur, even though authority are still tracing them.

Novel coronavirus spread from China in December last year and was reported middle week of January this year.

The whole world was alerted and measures to contain the spread of the virus had been taken up almost at every country.

Manipur government took up precautionary measures from January 18. All passengers at airport and other land route entry have been screen.

And awareness programme have been taken up by the state government.

When the number of positive cases case was on the rise Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Janata Curfew on March 22 and it was followed by 21 days lockdown in the entire country from Midnight of March 24.

Manipur government already impose curfew and locked down Khwairamband Ima Keithel before the Prime Minister announced “Janata Curfew”.

It was at these juncture when the state government has been taking up measures to fight the COVID-19 that those people attended the Nizamuddin Markaz at Delhi returned Imphal.

The 2nd person who was tested positive reportedly return on March 9.

What this person was doing all this days?

Why he had not reported his travel story to the Government authority as soon as the report about Nizamuddin Markaz spread like wild fire?

Now there is a possibility that whomever he contacted in the last 10 days have the virus. But how many of them?

People in the state are lucky that there is a total lockdown for 21 days as the number of person that the person contacted is confined to only some place but can’t guarantee about his contact since March 9 till March 21 as there was no lockdown called.

Now, as per advice of medics , the window period of the virus from showing symptoms is 14 days minimum and may extend till 27 days.

That is why the medical expert suggested that by April first week or second week many persons in the state may show symptoms of the disease.

WE CARE OUR PEOPLE, no matter they are Muslim, Christian, Hindu or any other religion.

Instead of trying to communalizing the issue let us find out the reality and trace out whoever may have been infected by the disease.