Of Tests and Quarantine in the Battle Against Covid-19

Nagaland’s fight against Covid has been a bitter sweet battle right from the start with many a hiccup. Appreciation and credit ought to be given where it is due and deserving criticisms ought to be accepted with humility. The effort of the Govt. to bring the stranded citizens from various parts of the country is well appreciated by some (many whose children are returning home) and criticised by others (mostly those who have no relatives outside). Many orders, guidelines, advisories, SOPs sometimes even contradicting each other or changing very frequently, has been served by various agencies of both Govt. and non Govt. authorities to the confusion of the target audience often causing more disparity than clarity so much so that there had been cases of unwarranted violence, assault and unpleasant embarrassing situations. This is compounded by social organisations putting up various demands where some are even unreasonable or unacceptable, but a closer look reveals that some demands were driven by fear and/or ignorance which only indicated the need for closer interactions between the Govt. and Social Agencies. Many issues have been resolved or settled and the fight against Covid-19 goes on.

Planning is an essential part of any operation, let alone one of this magnitude pandemic as of Covid. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “If you Fail to Plan, you are Planning to Fail”. The authorities had the requisite information and data of people returning back to Nagaland from various part of the country before their journey actually began. The logistic of quarantine in Kohima and Dimapur, which were declared as the portal of entry and stay for “Unsafe Overcrowded Quarantine” for various districts could have been evaluated well before the returnees arrived and the “Grave Danger of Overcrowding” in the so called quarantine centers at Kohima and Dimapur could have been avoided for the safety of everyone more in particular for the “Returnees”. The fact that there were no sufficient infrastructure for quarantine for the returnees but to declare a mandatory Govt. facility quarantine for all returnees by the Govt. authority which initially was slated for 21 days and later declared three days only then extended again, was not only out of touch with the practical ground realities but seem to display a “Lack of Seriousness in Planning and a Lack of Understanding of Reason” behind the duration of quarantine which is substantiated further by the “Nepotism and Favoritism” shown towards some rich and influential returnees as strongly alleged by a social organisation .

While the present stand of the authorities to advocate quarantine for 14 days in institutional quarantine centers is appreciated, however, the decision to hold all “Returnees from Red Zones or Green Zone being Mixed Randomly and Thoughtlessly” dumped in Kohima and Dimapur has posed another severe practical problem, and most of all a dangerous one at that in the form of explosively overcrowding in quarantine centers without proper arrangement and management, thereby risking an exponential spread from these quarantine centers, apart from overwhelming and over exhausting the logistic teams and medical service providers. As such, many villages including Jotsoma and Khonoma are applying for recognition of their “Own Arranged Quarantine Centers” so that they can take out their children to a safer center.

The fact that 80% of Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic (showing no symptoms) who can transmit the Covid disease to “All Their Contacts in Their Communities”, keeping returnees in overcrowded quarantine centers in Kohima and Dimapur, has become a matter of serious concern even to the social organisations who provide them services, so much, so that various organisations such as Dimapur Urban Council Chairman’s Federation, Dimapur Naga Students’ Union, Naga Women Hoho Dimapur, and GB’s Union Dimapur, Angamiapfü Mechü Krotho, and Kohima Village Council did express concerns and the practical difficulties that were emerging in Kohima and Dimapur and thereby suggesting to let other districts ease the burden by segregation and helping out in the quarantine of their respective district returnees, while at the same time suggesting the Govt. that all returnees should be strictly tested while still in quarantine for the safety of the returnees. It is unfortunate that some people had attempted to put a tribal intonation to the whole episode, accusing the people of Kohima and Dimapur to be very selfish. Nevertheless, however misunderstood or selfish the Civil Societies of Kohima and Dimapur may sound to some, the fact remains that overcrowding in the quarantine centers of these two districts is a “Grave Threat to all the Inmates”.

While it would be ideal that all returnees are tested on arrival at the route of entry, be it railway, roadway or airway before heading to respective districts as suggested earlier, the two labs has only a testing capacity of 70 samples per day with a long turnover time and till date only one is operational. Thus what is ideal often may not be practical and vice-versa. Meanwhile in the waiting period of testing, the quarantine centers in Kohima and Dimapur are getting explosively overcrowded and the status quo has to be avoided for the safety of the returnees or for all. Any asymptomatic Covid-19 positive case lurking in crowded quarantine centers can lead to an exponential rise in Covid case and “Create Super-Spreaders in All our Naga Communities”. Covid-19 disease does not make any tribal or traditional land owners distinction therefore these two are not our issue.

To prevent exponential rise of Covid cases, returnees need to be decongested in any case either you like it or not by accommodating in their respective district quarantine centers as the example of Jotsoma and Khonoma we have no choice. Why keep those quarantine centers in other Districts empty? To prevent “Creation of Super- Spreaders in our Naga Communities”, all returnees should be tested by sending samples from the quarantine centers/District hospitals in the respective districts to the testing laboratory. Nobody is claiming the ownership of our BSL-3 lab, it is equally important for every citizen of Nagaland. Whatever said and done is in the interest of the returnees that they are not overcrowded in Kohima or Dimapur quarantine centers but quarantined in smaller groups in their safe respective destination districts. The overwhelming number of returnees can overwhelm the medical service providers and even compromise the quality of service provision. It is just a common sense. The concern to decongest the quarantine centers should not in any way be misinterpreted as “Denial of Service to Those from Other Districts on Tribal Line”.

In critical moments such as these, with more people to come from more “Hot Spots” in the coming days, we do not need another problem in the form of tribal discrimination. If the suggestion of Dimapur and Kohima to move the returnees to respective district sounds ‘selfish’, the denial by the home districts would appear ‘cruel’ given the fact that each district has been prepared to handle Covid-19 pandemic. The problem of the overcrowded quarantine centers should not be viewed only from the narrow prism of tribalism, but from the larger and more dangerous perspective of the “Potential of Explosive Spread in the Communities” begin from crowded quarantine centers. If only the authorities can indulge in more anticipatory planning taking into confidence of the stakeholders and civil societies, such problems of unnecessary misunderstanding could have been avoided. After all in the end, it is the community where the Covid disease would spread, or it is only the communities that can help prevent the spread. Stay Home and Stay Safe in the Lord. May all of you find favor in the eyes of God.

Kevinourheno Seyie
President AMK,
Shürhivino Nakhro
Gen Secy AMK