Dimapur has 296 beds for Covid-19 patients; over 100 beds to be added soon

124 deaths have been recorded in Nagaland this year

Our Reporter
Dimapur, May 19 (EMN): Dimapur district is now equipped with 296 beds for Covid patients, following the co-operation extended by private hospitals to increase the capacity for patients afflicted with Covid-19.

This was informed by the nodal officer for Covid-related activities in Dimapur, Y Kikheto Sema, during a press conference held at DC conference hall in Dimapur on Wednesday.

He informed that Faith Hospital has 51 beds for Covid patients and the facility is proving free treatment to poor and marginal patients. The hospital will also start giving free ambulance service, he added.

Nikos Hospital & Research Centre has 10 beds for Covid patients, Eden Medical Centre has 25 beds, Zion Hospital has six beds and they have assured to extend to 10-15 more beds in few days’ time, Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research (CIHSR) has increased to 104 beds and 48 more are in the pipeline, while Dimapur District Hospital has 100 beds, the nodal officer informed.

He said that out of the 296 beds in Dimapur, 40 beds are with ICU facilities, 193 oxygen beds, 25 non-oxygen beds and about 10 makeshift beds as of now. ‘And within a couple of days, Olive Christian Hospital and Research Centre should begin treating Covid patients with 30 beds,’ he added.

He stated that in private hospitals have been asked to start 30 beds for Covid patients and they are expected start within a few days, “and so within this week we are expecting that the facility will increase to 335 beds”.

Sema said that the responsibility in Dimapur alone is more than the rest of Nagaland as most passengers come to the state through the city and has more than 61% of Covid positive patients of the state.

He shared that the first option for them was to increase the bed capacity and “at this rate we need to prepare ourselves and therefore with the help of the co-operation extended by the private hospitals, we have increased the beds capacity”.

He also informed that they have inspected a few institutions, particularly Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) and Dimapur Government College, and they are initially going to start with 100 beds at IHM, which is expected to be functional by next week. He said that “we need to prepare for the worst and if the situation compels, we can increase to 300 beds”.

He informed that the state government has made the decision to bring doctors and nurses from nine district hospitals, excluding Kohima and Dimapur.

“We are also going to request the retired health workers to come forward and to fight against the pandemic,” he added.

124 deaths in Nagaland this year

“In the first wave, there were 40 deaths due to Covid in Dimapur, and this year from January till May 18, there were 118 deaths (124 deaths till May 19),” he said. He asserted that the number of deaths is high in Dimapur, because it includes all the patients who came to Dimapur for treatment from other districts, and not only the Dimapur citizens.

Sema shared that the area of concern is for the poor and marginal patients, as they cannot insist on private hospitals to provide free treatment, except from the district hospital. He thus urged the NGOs and civil societies to come forward to help.

Nobody comes to pay respect to the death

Sema expressed sadness over nobody attending the cremation of the death or to pray during the burial service.

“People are of the view that when a Covid patient dies, they should be buried only by the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) but there is no such rule; in fact, SDRF is to take care of unclaimed bodies only,” he said.

He shared that they received many phone calls from families saying that they couldn’t attend the burial and asked them to take the corpse to the cemetery. He said that the coffin is safe as the healthcare workers sanitise and seal it, “and it is much safer compared to being together with Covid positive person”.

He added that there has not been a single death of SRDF personnel who are managing the coffins.

The officer stated that the question of a particular community or tribe does not arise ‘but as a Christian we should come forward, and question how villages can deny the citizens to come to their own village area’. “There is no restriction that dead bodies should not be buried in their own village,” he said, adding that 20 persons can attend a funeral as per the SOP ‘but nobody turns up’.

He said that recently, few prominent leaders from the state passed away, but nobody turned up to for their burial service. “Coffin is safe and so the wrong notion should not be there and people’s mind should be changed,” he stated and asked the churches to come forward.

He further requested villages and colonies not to come up with their own rules and restrictions but follow the government order.

“During pandemic, we don’t want anything but discipline and using unnecessary power cannot be tolerated,” he maintained, and urged the administration to take action against those ‘who do anything that is beyond syllabus’.

He also urged all the communities and churches to come forward and help the poor and needy during this lockdown.

“The government will also try their best to help but they should not depend everything from the government. Taking the advantage of corona, many people failed in practical, and Nagas, we as Christians have failed miserably,” he said.