SHILLONG: The COVID-19 pandemic has created panic across the globe with countries like Spain and Italy having to decide who should be left to die and who should be provided respirators.
Prime Minister Modi first announced a one-day ‘Janata curfew’ on March 22. This was followed by the 21-day lockdown from midnight of March 24.
The Meghalaya government announced a curfew despite the lockdown and people wondered why the double whammy.
According to the East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, M. War, as of March 24, around 3000 students and others have registered under the mandatory quarantine protocol but most of them are breaking the self-quarantine and moving around.
The headmen are finding it to difficult to enforce the quarantine. Hence curfew the following day on March 25 was necessitated to control movement of people.
Chief Secretary MS Rao informed that he is having a meeting with headmen of Shillong on Monday to discuss the modalities of preventing quarantined people from moving around and also to thrash out other matters to ensure that people face minimum inconvenience.
Rao added that those coming from outside the state especially the infected states could be potential carriers even if they are themselves not affected.
The asymptomatic persons have the potential to infect others which could be fatal to those with lesser immunity, particularly the sick and elderly.
“Unless people advised home quarantine, follow it strictly and others minimise their movements to the bare essentials, duly observing hygiene and social distancing protocols there is every likelihood that it will affect our state as well and given our concentration of people in Shillong it could spread very fast. That we don’t have a single case as yet is partly due to the stringent measures,” Rao added.
The chief secretary said the government is observing developments from close quarters and working relentlessly to reduce the problem of people in accessing their rations and other essentials and request that the public cooperate in the larger good.