Ever since a distinctive group of Meghalaya citizens attended a marriage ceremony at a resort in Guwahati and some members returned with Covid infection, allegations of serious administrative lapses have rocked the state. It’s not for nothing that the Coronavirus (Covid19) is preceded by the term ‘novel.’ This virus is unpredictable in its behaviour and what adds to the predicament of health workers is that many who test Covid+ive are asymptomatic, which means that they don’t present the symptoms and may not fall ill but will go around infecting others. This is exactly the case with the 41 marriage returnees who are now accused of hoodwinking the district administration by seeking a travel pass on grounds of health emergencies but diverted to a marriage location. What is bewildering is how the applications for car passes in such large numbers escaped the vigilant eyes of those processing the applications. The public is rightly incensed that of these 41 marriage attendees, only those that had tested positive had been quarantined while others continued to roam around and visit eating joints and various public places. This utterly reprehensible behaviour is what has angered the public of Meghalaya. In turn there is now a clamour that names of all who test Covid positive henceforth should be made public.
The alibi for not making the names of Covid positive persons public so far is to prevent stigmatization of the infected persons. But by now most Dorbar Shnong have learnt to deal with this challenge and are proactively intervening in their respective localities so that an infected person who may be a health worker in a Covid designated hospital or Corona Care centre is given due space for quarantine without any stigma being attached to the person.
It is evident from the rapid spread of the virus that Meghalaya too should learn to deal with Covid19 in a more hard-nosed manner by preparing the population to accept the hard reality that anyone can contact the virus and if infected to not panic but follow the health protocols. The panic reactions on learning that someone has tested Covid positive must be replaced by a sense of calm acceptance that the recovery rate of the disease in Meghalaya was quite high at over 80% before the recent surge. The recovery rate will go up once those tested Covid+ive complete their quarantine and are re-tested since most of them are asymptomatic. The paranoia about BSF personnel jacking up the Covid figures also needs to be dispelled since the majority of them are healthy and asymptomatic. Moreover, movement of BSF personnel on leave or deputation/transfer has been temporarily shelved.