Preparedness of all health centres studied
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, December 27 2022: Given the surge of COVID-19 mostly dominated by BF.7 variant in some countries, the Government carried out a Covid response mock drill to ascertain whether the hospitals in Manipur are prepared or well equipped to face another wave of the pandemic.

Speaking to the media on the sideline of the exercise, Health Director Dr Kh Sasheekumar Mangang said that some countries in Asia, Europe and North America including neighbouring China have been witnessing fresh outbreak of the contagion driven by BF.7 variant since the past one month or two.

Saying that BF.7, however, is not a newly discovered variant of coronavirus as the same has been detected in Gujarat in June 2022, Dr Sasheekumar said that eight variants of Covid strain have been detected in Manipur thus far and none of them were very dangerous.

Preparedness of all health centres studied

He stated that the State hasn't reported any cases of BF.7 and BF.12 strain till date.

Further stating that BF.7 is a sub-variant of Omicron mutated from BA.5 and it has already been detected in India earlier, the Health Director stated that the Government, nonetheless, is putting maximum efforts to prevent a fresh surge of the contagion.

As per the data collected by the Government, maximum cases of Covid were reported in between November and February, Dr Sasheekumar informed and added that the pattern is somewhat different in Manipur as Covid infected more people in August-September according to records available.

The Health Director went on to state that the Manipur Government carried out the mock exercise as per the direction given by the Centre to make sure people get better treatment facilities in case there is an outbreak.

He continued that the State went through many difficulties in confronting waves of Covid earlier due to unavailability of adequate bed, ambulance, testing centre and oxygen as no preparatory measures were taken up in advance.

s per him, the mock drill was carried out in all districts of Manipur and the officials came across some minor problems during the exercise.

Stating that minor problems were detected in some of the Oxygen Plants installed at district hospitals, Dr Sasheekumar informed there will be no shortage of oxygen in Manipur even if there is a spurt in Covid cases.

He also informed that the Government has procured about 20,000 oxygen cylinders and arranged 82 ambulances, 148 ICU and 500 oxygen beds at Government health centres.

There are adequate ambulances in the State as there are many private hospitals which offer the service too, the Health Director said.

Informing that there would be no delay in getting Covid test results as RT-PCR machines and test kits have been kept at majority of the districts, Dr Sasheekumar continued that the same testing facility will be made available at the remaining districts too.

There are adequate testing facilities in Manipur as True-Nat machines which give accurate results similar to RT-PCR have been installed at different private and Government hospitals, he added.

Even if there is another outbreak, the State is well equipped to handle it, he added.

On vaccination, the Health Director said that the State has administered 62.8 per cent of its eligible population with the first and another 53 per cent with the second dose, but less than 30 per cent of the population have taken the precautionary dose.

He continued that they have sent a proposal to the Centre to provide adequate Covid vaccines for the State.