Salespersons in a fix over mandatory test order
Voluntary testing upon suspicion, showing symptoms must: Dr Meena
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, June 06 2021: A recent order of the government making possession of Covid negative certificates mandatory by salespersons working in shops permitted to open during the curfew period for rendering service has put shop owners and salesmen in a difficult position regarding the validity of the negative certificate.

As per an order issued by DC Imphal West, owners and salesmen of pharmacy shops, motor workshops and other shops would need to produce Covid negative certificates by June 8.Shops which cannot produce the negative certificates will not be allowed to operate until they produce a negative certificate, the order stated.

In this regard, a pharmacy shop owner told The People's Chronicle that the initiative of the district administration is worth welcoming as having knowledge of one's Covid status is very important in the fight against the pandemic.

However, validity of a Covid negative certificate is still a big question since the initiative taken up by the district administration is a onetime measure.

As anybody can get infected after getting tested negative for Covid-19, a proper policy with a certain time frame like mandatory weekly testing would prove more effective.

Meanwhile, state nodal officer of maternal health and in-charge of Management of Covid testing, Dr Meena Seram told TPC that the existing validity for Covid negative certificate set by the state government for inbound flight passengers is 72 hours and it was specified only for the purpose of allowing unavoidable movement during the pandemic.

In reality, a negative certificate does not have any validity since it indicates only the condition at the time of sample collection.

Even if an individual gets negative test results, he/she might get infected shortly after the test upon coming in contact with a positive person.

As such, any individual, who are suspicious of coming in contact with positive cases or showing symptoms, should get tested irrespective of having a negative certificate or not, she said.

The health authority is in no position to establish the chain of transmission when a positive case surfaces and as such any individual can be a carrier of the contagion.

Those individuals, who fall in the exempted category from the purview of the curfew, such as salesmen of different types of shops including pharmacies, vehicle repairing shops and home delivery services, might act as a medium of transmission.

This led to the initiative of making negative certificate mandatory for these groups of people as part of the containment measures, she explained.

Dr Meena further said that there are still several people who refuse to get tested even after showing symptoms.

A visit from such people to the grocery store or pharmacy shops might transmit the virus to the salesmen or owner of that shop and the shop in question could further become a point of transmission unknowingly, she contended.

She then appealed to all to get tested if they are suspicion or have symptoms so as to know their Covid status.

Hiding the condition will not only endanger their lives but also the lives of their near and dear ones as well as friends and the society.

Besides, it is high time the public make Covid appropriate behaviour as part of their culture, she added.

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