State brings out white paper on tackling Covid 2nd wave
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, December 17 2021: As assured in the State Legislative Assembly, the State Government today brought out a white paper on tackling COVID-19 (2nd wave) .

It was released by Chief Minister N Biren Singh in the presence of Ministers L Dikho, S Rajen, O Lukhoi, Th Satyabrata, Chief Secre-tary Dr Rajesh Kumar and different Administrative Secretaries at the Chief Minister's Secretariat.

The 2nd wave of Covid-19 pandemic was severe throughout the country with the infection spreading very rapidly and a very large number of persons were affected.

In the 1st wave, there were 28,188 positive cases and in the 2nd wave, there were 97,381 positive cases till December 15, 2021.To meet the COVID related expenses, an amount of Rs 6.91 crore was utilized by the Health Department under SDRF.

State brings out white paper on tackling Covid 2nd wave

The Health Department also incurred expenditure amounting to Rs 68.98 crore from the State budget and Rs 23.85 crore from ECRP/NHM funding.

In addition, the CM's COVID Relief Fund was utilized for expenditure amounting to Rs 5.96 crore.

The State Government pro-actively took up numerous steps to tackle the 2nd wave in a time bound manner.

The State Covid-19 Control Room was relocated to 1st MR Banquet Hall to enable multi-departmental coordination.

Understanding that oxygen supply was vital in the 2nd wave, a State Oxygen Management Team under a senior IAS officer was set up on April 30, 2021 for 24x7 handling and monitoring of oxygen supply matters.

To meet urgent requirements, the number of 'D' type oxygen cylinders was increased from 25 (before 2nd wave) to about 6007 within two months.

Number of 'B' type cylinders also was increased from 117 to about 1122.Sixteen PSA oxygen plants were set up under PM-CARES (Government of India), six PSA oxygen plants in hill districts under Tribal Affairs and Hills Department and two LMO (liquid oxygen) plants at JNIMS, Porompat.

To meet oxygen therapy requirements, about 480 oxygen ventilators and 3145 oxygen concentrators were acquired with support from the Central Government.

About 20,000 pulse oxymeters were also acquired.

For treatment of Covid-19 patients, 1179 general beds and 209 ICU/HDU beds were set up in hospitals at Imphal and outlying districts.

In addition to it, 3472 beds were set up in about 29 Covid Care Centres in different districts of the State.

Oxygen support through oxygen concentrator machines and oxygen cylinders were also provided.

Home isolation for positive persons with proper home isolation facilities was adopted for asymptomatic and very mild patients in line with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare guidelines.

Community home isolation centres were also opened to enable better monitoring and facilitate admission of patients lacking suitable home isolation facilities.

A State technical expert committee, chaired by the Director of Health Services was set up to formulate advisories, guidelines and SOPs on Covid-19 management.