The Mizoram government would constitute a medical operation team to be headed by Health and Family Welfare Board vice chairman and ruling Mizo National Front (MNF) MLA Dr Z R Thiamsanga to fight coronavirus spread, an official of state Health department said on Tuesday.
The decision was made at the meeting of government medical officers and representatives of private hospitals held under the leadership of health minister Dr R Lalthangliana, he said.
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He said that the medical team would involve t medical experts from the government and private hospitals to expedite coordination in tackling the prevailing crisis triggered by the global outbreak of coronavirus.
The operation team would be broadly divided into two- medical team and ICU team and team members would be appointed as per necessity.
It was mentioned in the meeting that, at least 13,000 units of personal protective equipment of good quality have been ordered from the Centre to be used by medical teams.
The meeting also asked people to refrain from buying chloroquine phosphate, hydroxychloroquinine, azithromycin and spare them for those who need them.
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It also approved state’s lone medical college – Zoram Medical College (ZMC) as treatment, quarantine as well as isolation centre for coronavirus infected patients.
Meanwhile, the State Government has formed a committee headed by health secretary H Lalengmawia to expedite installation of virology laboratory at ZMC to test suspected patients.
Apart from a member secretary, the committee comprised 10 members, including three legislators.
Lalengmawia said that the government is making massive efforts to install coronavirus testing laboratory along with biosafety level 3 laboratory at ZMC.
He said that the project would involve lakhs of rupees.
Meanwhile, opposition Congress has asked the state government to stock adequate personal protective equipment for officials and medical teams like it was done by its Meghalaya counterpart.
Also read: Coronavirus enters Northeast; Manipur records first case?
The party also asked the State Government to provide adequate protective masks, hand gloves and sanitizers to volunteers at district and local level task force, who maintain round-the-clock vigil during the partial state-wide lockdown.
It further demanded relief measure for daily wage earners, who faced food shortage due to the partial lockdown.
Main opposition Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) leader Lalduhoma asked the state government to set up a 24×7 duty room where government officials, representatives of political parties, NGOs, churches and medical experts would sit as monitoring team to deals with any matter related with the coronavirus spread.
He alleged that about 438 non –tribals (outsiders) have entered the state by flights between March 9 and 18 and are moving around the State.
“I appealed to the State Government to pursue the non-tribal and put them under house quarantine since most of them came from coronavirus affected states,” Lalduhoma said.
Meanwhile, state Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai has prohibited strike and agitation by a group or any individual dealing in essential commodities supply.
