SHILLONG: The state Health department’s tall claim of having completed over 1,100 contact tracing since the last lockdown came under serious questioning in the densely populated Mawbah locality here where even a week after one woman died of COVID infection, the primary contacts were yet to be tested by the health workers!
The drill is when a person is tested positive is to immediately isolate the primary contacts, also called high risk contacts, and get them tested forthwith, but in Mawbah, for inexplicable reasons, the primary contacts have remained untested all these seven days.
An upset Rangbah Shnong of Mawbah, David Syiemlieh on Thursday told a group of reporters who visited the containment zone that the area was facing a lot of hard time as the primary contacts of the positive patient had not been tested while they had been waiting in their homes for over a week now for the health workers to come and test them.
“It is a big concern for us and we have 25 primary contacts out of which only nine have been taken for testing,” he said while adding that the lackadaisical attitude of the government in contact tracing and testing them had caused panic in the area.
He lamented that the containment zone was announced all of a sudden leaving hundreds of daily wage earners high and dry. “We are having a hard time,” he said while informing that the residents were tensed after three active cases were detected in their locality.
Health Minister, AL Hek, DHS (MI) Dr Aman War and local MLA Mohendro Rapsang on Thursday visited Mawbah to take stock of the situation. Talking to reporters Hek admitted that there was a delay in taking samples of the primary contacts following the huge rush in the testing centres at Civil Hospital and Pasteur Institute.
“The authorities have been directed to take the primary contacts today in batches for rapid antigen tests and ten samples had already been collected,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rapsang also informed that for alleviating the sufferings of the residents, he had spoken to the COVID management committee and the Durbar Shnong to provide essential commodities to the people while adding that areas like Mawprem, Jhalupara and Mawbah were vulnerable to COVID-19 and hence contact tracing and testing must be fast tracked.
