Ampareen asks govt to convene all-party meet on COVID-19

SHILLONG, May 9: Congress MLA, Ampareen Lyngdoh has urged the state government to convene an all-party meeting at the earliest to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the state which has turned critical.
“We have to know from the government what is going on since nobody knows anything,” Lyngdoh said on Sunday.
She expressed concern that some city hospitals have started facing the problem of shortage of medical oxygen and informed that one of the hospitals had to reach out to the government to address the problem.
“The Health department had to make arrangements from Pasteur Institute to meet the requirement of this particular hospital. I am sure other hospitals are also facing similar problems,” the senior Congress leader said.
Lyngdoh also said that the situation at Shillong Civil Hospital was fast deteriorating.
Recalling that Chief Minister, Conrad K. Sangma had inspected an oxygen plant at Byrnihat last Sunday, Lyngdoh said, “No one is aware of the capacity of this plant in Byrnihat to produce medical oxygen. We are in the dark on the state’s preparedness to deal with the pandemic.”
Hospitals in the city and their staff are under tremendous pressure, she cautioned, adding that the situation was going out of control.
Lyngdoh also expressed concern over 29 fatalities from COVID-19 in the past two days.
“Not only elderly people, even youths have succumbed to the virus which is really unfortunate. I am concerned about how many more lives we are going to lose from this pandemic,” she added.