The Nagaland Indigenous People’s Forum (NIPF) on Friday said it was saddened at the serious violation of the standard operating procedure by sending a Covid-19 positive returnee to Peren district on June 3.
Strongly condemning such kind of repeated negligence and violation of the laid down rules by the government, the NIPF urged the government to be sensitive and cautious in dealing and handling with the situation.
It sought to point out that a similar mistake was committed some days back by sending returnees to Tuensang before their test results were out.
The forum, in a release, demanded that this repeated violation of the SOP followed by clarification(s) needs to be immediately stopped once and for all.
The forum said the state government came out with a new committee on Covid-19 headed by chief minister Neiphiu Rio and other top brass of the government after a positive person was sent to Tuensang.
It referred to the revised SOP for returnees to the state issued on June 1.
“According to the point numbers 1 and 3 of the revised ROP, all returnees from Chennai who arrived on May 22 ‘will continue to remain in the quarantine centres until the Covid-19 tests are done on all such persons.
Those who test positive but do not require hospitalisation and are fit to travel will be sent under special transportation after following all the necessary health protocols’,” it said.
The forum lamented that all these points of the SOP have been violated once again with the sending of a Covid-19 positive patient along with others to Peren district.
It said with the rise of Covid-19 positive cases in Nagaland among the returnees and sending them to their respective districts without knowing the status of the test results, in total violation of the SOP, has endangered the lives of the populace. This may soon take the state to the stage of community transmission of the disease, it added