Cong lists demands and suggestions to deal with second wave
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 11 2021: Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee's spokesman MLA K Meghachandra today conducted an online press conference in connection with the prevailing situation due to the second wave of COVID-19 in Manipur.

During the virtual conference, the MLA raised many demands and laid down many suggestions to the State Government to effectively fight the pandemic and save lives of the people.

The MLA called on the State Government to increase the bed capacity of all District Hospitals to 100 beds, to equip them with ventilators, ICU and other requisite facilities to fight Covid at the earliest.

The Government must immediately release Rs 1 crore to every MLA to economically empower them in fighting the Covid second wave, he said.

The State should conduct permanent recruitment of doctors and nurses to fill up the shortage of doctors, nurses and staff in Health Department and District Hospitals, he said.

On vaccination, the MLA said that the State Government should step up vaccination process for persons between the age of 18-44 .

He also urged the State Government to allot more ambulance to every district to combat Covid.

ICU beds, Oxygen beds, beds well equipped with ventilators must be increased to reduce death rate, he continued while urging the State Government not to conceal any data on Covid death rate and positivity rate everyday.

The State Government should also put a price cap for hospitalisation and treatment of Covid patients at private hospitals so that poor people do not suffer financially, he said.

Covid management systems must be de-centralised instead of being centralised and controlled by one committee or limited bureaucracy, he said and continued that de-centralised Covid management is necessary to attend to issues in hill districts and rural areas of the State.

The results of the genome sequencing of the Covid samples from Manipur must be officially released so that the types of variants of Covid prevalent here can be known, he said.

Groceries, food delivery systems, online food delivery and home delivery system must be exempted from restrictions under curfew or containment notification by the Government, he said while adding that food supplies to the Covid patients, poor and the needy people during curfew must also not be stopped.

Banks must be exempted from restrictions under curfew so that the ATMs are replenished with sufficient cash for use in treatment and other essential purposes, he continued.

The MLA also urged the State Government to extend immediate aid and relief to the families of Covid victims.

Rs 29.2 crore, which is already released by the Centre to Manipur, meant for use in fighting Covid at Panchayats must reach villagers on time, he said while calling on the State Government to immediately release Rs 485.5 crore, which was already released from the Centre to the State, for MGNREGA to the villagers during the Covid pandemic.

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