The Nagaland government on Sunday directed all retail pharmacies to collect information of all persons who buy medicines for fever and cough to have records and monitor them in order to upscale surveillance for Covid-19.
In an order, the government said the information should be collected in the prescribed format given by it and sent to the Whatsapp numbers of the respective districts.
It said this would entail a little bit more work on the retail pharmacies. “However, in this extra ordinary times, we need to upscale our surveillance and thus, cooperation is sought from all the retail pharmacies,” the order said.
The state government also constituted an advisory committee on Covid-19 to formulate longer term strategies to deal with the pandemic.
Chief minister Neiphiu Rio and the State Disaster Management Authority took the decision at a meeting convened in Kohima on Saturday to review the preparedness and mitigation measures being undertaken by the state government against the virus.
The advisory committee comprises experts from medicine, socio economic, supply chain, disaster management and emergency response. It will advice the state government to take incremental comprehensive measures on the containment of Covid-19.
The committee would also seek advice of international experts as and when the need arises.
The SDMA accorded in principle approval to bring out a blueprint of the state Covid-19 response and control programme in order to have an incremental containment of the virus.
The meeting reviewed the preparedness and mitigation measures taken by the state government.