Misleading reports on Covid-19 irk villagers

Our Correspondent
Kohima, June 30 (EMN): Updates on state Covid-19 status by the minister of Health and Family Welfare, S Pangnyu Phom on June 29 and 30th created unnecessary commotion amongst the members of Jakhama, a village in the southern Angami region of Kohima district.

Members of Jakhama village were alarmed after the Twitter handle of the minister updated on Monday morning that 19 new cases of Covid-19 were detected out of 322 samples, of which 18 were from Jakhama quarantine centre and one from Peren quarantine centre.

Consequently, the updates were also taken to other social media platforms and shared by many users with photo of Jakhama quarantine centre, while the same was published in some local dailies which irked the village community.

There are two quarantine centres—one managed by security forces at army cantonment which is a separate entity, and the other within the village jurisdiction managed by Jakhama Students’ Union (JSU) to accommodate fellow members of the village on returning from facility quarantine.

Members from Jakhama, while reacting to the misleading information on social networking sites which had subsequently created fear psychosis and panic amongst the villagers living within and outside Jakhama, have asked the concerned to rectify and make necessary corrections. It was informed that the appeals made by some concerned members went in vain.

To their dismay, the Twitter account of the Health and Family Welfare minister updated another report of Covid-19 stating that six more confirmed cases of Covid-19 were from Jakhama quarantine centre on Tuesday morning. It was only after a couple of hours, the minister twitted to clarify that the “Jakhama QC” should be read as “Jakhama Military QC.”

Members of the village were of the opinion that the authority should be more careful while disseminating reports of Covid-19 cases as it could wreak unnecessary commotion and fear among the people.

Meanwhile, members of JSU, who are running the community quarantine centre for the returnees belonging to Jakhama on the outskirts of the village, informed Eastern Mirror that there are 11 inmates at the facility. The inmates are undergoing home quarantine at the facility following their completion of the mandatory 14-day institutional quarantine.

JSU also informed that till date, six persons have been released from Jakhama quarantine centre at Wiza following the completion of their second confinement period. JSU informed that the inmates were issued discharge certificates before their departure. JSU further informed that two more inmates are likely to be discharged on Wednesday.