Ramp up contact tracing call : Home isolation model
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: July 07, 2021 -

Ramp up contact tracing. Intensify monitoring of infected persons in home isolation.

The common thread running through these two suggestions should be clear to all and that is, the State Government needs to do more in the face of the rapid spread of the virus.

Just how diligently is the line, 'containment measures and contact tracing' are in place in the daily statement issued to the media by the COVID-19 Common Control Room followed, is a question that needs serious deliberations.

Talk to anyone who has recovered from the disease and one will get a fair idea of how judiciously is the line, 'contact tracing' taken by the authority concerned and it is good that the team deputed by the Central Government has deemed it fit to spell this out to the media during the press briefing on July 5.

The Sangai Express has on more than one occasion questioned how seriously is the process of contact tracing being taken by the authority concerned and now with a team from the Centre suggesting that this process needs to be ramped up, the reality should be clear to all. Home isolation.

This again is a point which The Sangai Express had repeatedly expressed reservation for most of the homes in Manipur are not suited to keep anyone carrying the virus effectively cut off from the rest of the other family members.

Majority of households have a common toilet and a common bathroom. Brothers share the same room and so too sisters.

A common entranceway is a given in most of the households. This is where the Government would need to study why so many prefer to stay at home when infected.

One reason is the standard of the different Covid Care Centres and the amenities provided there.

There are voluntary organisations which have come forward to provide free food to people staying at the Covid Care Centres, but then one cannot expect the voluntary organisations to cover all such centres and this is where the Government would need to take all the sixty MLAs along and entrust each of them the responsibility of looking after the food arrangements for inmates staying at Covid Care Centres in their respective Assembly Constituencies.

This is important given that not all the families are that well placed to arrange food for their members who are away at the Covid Care Centres.

Take care of their food and for those who can afford it, charge a token amount and for those who cannot provide them free food. Don't let the question of food dissuade anyone from getting admitted to a Covid Care Centre.

To come back to the opening point here, the Government will also need to give more teeth to the understanding of contact tracing.

Given that the Delta variant of the virus is much more contagious, tracing all the contacts cannot be more important than now.

The daily positivity rate is high, very high and on July 6, the positivity rate touched a high of 17 percent.

This is worrying. The virus is spreading like wildfire and the Government should acknowledge this.

That the team from New Delhi has suggested that the contact tracing exercise needs to be ramped up, should more than indicate that they are not very satisfied with what has been taken up so far.

Test, trace and treat is a line that should not be ignored and it should be seen in its entirety in the fight against the virus.