SHILLONG, May 16: The Meghalaya government has constituted the State Covid-19 Communication Unit to be headed by Matsiewdor War Nongbri, Secretary, Information and Public Relations Department.
According to the notification, the responsibility of this unit includes devising effective health communication for COVID-19.
It will also act as a central repository system and collate information from various sources such as National Health Mission, Directorate of Health Services (DHS), DC office, etc., and ensure that vital public health communication pertaining to COVID-19 is available under one umbrella and disseminated quickly among the masses for increasing awareness.
The unit has also been tasked with providing feedback on all outgoing Covid-19 communication materials, and identifying and building relationship with key media channels to direct them towards the updated government sources for COVID-data and information.
The communication unit will convene a team of translators to ensure that any material to be reproduced in Hindi, Khasi and Garo is done at the earliest, officials said.
The unit will mobilise a panel of dedicated public health experts to answer questions on Covid-19. It will further assess ongoing outreach efforts and their impact, monitor progress as well as identify gaps in existing strategy.
Health and Family Welfare Principal Secretary, Sampath Kumar said the coordination unit with the help of the Directorate of Information and Public Relations will carry out an aggressive campaign on COVID-19 throughout the state next week.
Kumar said the focus of this campaign will be on containment, vaccination and treatment.
“People should be aware of all the three things. Containment means prevention, masking and social distancing. If we fail to follow this then we will land up in hospitals for the treatment,” Kumar said.
According to him, treatment is about early recognition of the symptoms.
“People should not take chances whenever they have the symptoms. They should isolate themselves and start taking the medication even before testing. This will help in preventing people from landing up in a serious condition,” Kumar said.
