Manipur prepared to deal with Covid in case of outbreak: State health official

Manipur on Tuesday conducted a mock drill to fully activate the entire Covid infrastructure in the state following the central government advisory in the wake of the surge in Covid-19 in some countries

Manipur has prepared well to deal with the Covid-19 situation in case of any eventuality, Dr Kh Sasheekumar Mangang, director, state health services said on Tuesday.

State health services director said Manipur has as many as 598 beds, including 124 beds with intensive care unit facility (Representative Photo)

“The state’s preparedness came to light during the day’s mock drill conducted across health facilities in the state,” Sasheekumar said. “So the public should not panic about it,” he added.

Manipur on Tuesday conducted a mock drill to fully activate the entire Covid infrastructure in the state following the central government advisory in the wake of the surge in Covid-19 in some countries.

The health services director said the state has as many as 598 beds, including 124 beds with intensive care unit facility. Unlike in the past, the state also has adequate oxygen supply (in case of emergency) as almost all the PSA (pressure swing adsorption) oxygen plants except a few across the 16 districts of the state are functional, Sasheekumar said adding that the number of the hospital beds can also be expanded depending on the situation.

The state also has as many as 20,000 oxygen cylinders and 92 government ambulances across the districts, the director said.

“For improvement of testing facility, we’re planning to install RT-PCR machines in the remaining few districts apart from having 1.5 lakh RAT test essentials in stock,” he added.

On the vaccination status, Sasheekumar said the state’s vaccination rate is 62.8% for the first dose, 52% for the second and below 30% for the booster dose.

No new case was reported in Manipur on Tuesday making it the 14th day in a row to have zero new Covid-19 cases. Besides, there have been no active cases in the state since December 14 this year.

After the pandemic set foot in the state on March 24, 2020, Manipur, for the first time, became free from Covid-19 on May 20 last year.

So far, the virus has claimed 2,149 lives including seven Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel and infected 1,39,922 individuals including 5,022 CAPF personnel in the state.

After the advisory from the centre amid the rising cases in other countries, the state directorate of health services on December 21 issued a memorandum to take up necessary measures stating all newly detected Covid-19 positive cases will be tested for whole genome sequences through the nearest INSACOG network laboratories to enable timely detection of newer variants if any.