Ugly response to positive case of COVID-19 : The virus has landed
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 25 2020 -

The virus has landed.

Nothing surprising here for Manipur is also very much a member of the community which collectively make up the global village.

Again it is also not surprising to see so many misinformation and manufactured stories, in short blatant lies, carried out on the social media about the young girl who has had the misfortune of being the first person in Manipur to test positive for the coronavirus which has already taken a heavy toll, claiming over 17,147 human lives across the world.

The figure is high and with the world still searching for an antidote or the right medication, the sense of alarm triggered by the news that the young girl has tested positive is understandable.

But this cannot be any reason why some lumpen elements had to launch a wilful misinformation campaign that did nothing except give a totally wrong picture of the whole scenario.

The campaign did not remain alone in the virtual world of the social media for it was picked up from there and verbally passed, telephonically or otherwise, giving the perfect opportunity to the leikai experts to go around passing the misinformation verbally in the neighbourhood.

This was one ugly manifestation of the reality that Imphal woke up to on March 24, 2020.

Another ugly manifestation of the situation that unfolded was the decision of some leikai heroes and heroines who felt obliged to come out and block roads, again defeating the very call to maintain social distance to stop the virus from spreading.

Needless to say these road blocks must have greatly inconvenienced many who needed medical help and hence had to step out to brave the total shutdown imposed by the Government.

Of the many misinformation campaign was one particular voice clip that did the rounds on the social media, particularly Whatsapp.

The particular voice clip went to great pains to explain that the young lady in question knew her medical status, flew all the way from England to Gauhati and boarded a bus to Imphal on March 19 thereby exposing hundreds to the virus she was carrying.

The truth however is that the young lady in question here flew to Delhi from England, then proceeded to Kolkata where she met her brother who was also on his way back home from a place in the United States and took the flight to Imphal from Kolkata on March 21.

Hope the authority concerned has taken note of the voice clip and take appropriate action.

Another story that did the round was the allegation that the young lady knew about her health status but still flew all the way from England to Imphal via Delhi and Kolkata.

This is not Check up on all those who came into contact with the young lady, particularly those who shared the same flight/s and quarantine them.

Only misleading but stupid too for it takes tests and more tests to find out whether one is positive for coronavirus or not.

The tasks ahead of the Government are clear.

At 23 the lady is still young and she should pull through.

The Sangai Express joins the prayer to give her and the family members to have the strength to come over this.

And let the public have some sense too.