TURA, Nov 29: At a time when the Garo Hills region is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, the leaders of the United Democratic Party (UDP) in Garo Hills have written to the state government seeking relaxation of COVID protocols in relation to limitation of guests at marriages and exemption of the COVID test for emergency operations in hospitals in the region.
President of West Garo Hills UDP, Ludwig Sangma, submitted a memorandum to Water Resources Minister Brolding Nongsiej during the latter’s visit to the region, last week.
In their memo, the regional party leaders claimed that West Garo Hills has been facing “immense hardships” due to the protocol issued by the Health department with regard to emergency operation in hospitals.
“The patient and attendant have to undergo compulsory COVID test, which has its validity only for three days, and if the operation cannot be carried out within the stipulated time period, the same test has to be conducted after expiry of the three days.
Such protocol has been causing immense hardship in terms of finance as well as the wellbeing of the patient,” the UDP stated.
They further mentioned that even during times of emergency situation, hospitals are refusing to treat patients unless and until they get a COVID test done which is detrimental for the patient as time is extremely precious for the seriously ill that need urgent medical care.
On the wedding front, the UDP sought an increase in the number of people attending such events from the current 50 to 100-150 persons based on availability of space and maintenance of COVID protocols by the guests.
“As winter appears, wedding bells start to ring and Garo tribe being a community or clan based tribe, it is very hard on their part to limit the invitees or relatives on the grand occasion. The pandemic has already caused lots of hardship in terms of money and employment opportunities and hence during this time of hardship, the government should not be harsh in implementation of protocols, especially during wedding occasions,” suggested the UDP leaders.
