Covid-19: 168 churches in Mizoram offer halls to be used for quarantine facility

Chairperson of the task group of quarantine facilities Esther Lal Ruatkimi said Mizoram is facing shortage of quarantine facilities as a large number of people are returning to the state from various parts of the country.

With Mizoram facing shortage of quarantine facilities many churches in the Christian majority state have offered their halls to the state government to be used for quarantine purpose.

Meanwhile, an official of the task group on quarantine facilities said at least 2,518 people are currently placed under quarantine across the state. (PTI file photo. Representative image)

Chairperson of the task group of quarantine facilities Esther Lal Ruatkimi said Mizoram is facing shortage of quarantine facilities as a large number of people are returning to the state from various parts of the country.

She said that the government and churches have so far set up more than 500 quarantine facilities to accommodate 14,358 people but the state government require quarantine facility for at least 20,000 people.

The task group chairperson said that at least 168 churches from various denominations like Presbyterian Church, Baptist Church of Mizoram (BCM), Salvation Army (SA), Lairam Isua Krista Baptist Kohhran (LIKBK), Evangelical Church of Maraland (ECM), United Pentecostal Church (NEI) and United Pentecostal Church (Mizoram) have offered their halls to be used as quarantine facilities.

She said that more than 10,000 stranded people in different parts of the country will return to the state.

She thanked churches, village or local level task forces, NGOs and other stakeholders for extending invaluable helps to the government.

Of these, 1,940 people are quarantined at government designated facilities, 414 at church halls, 163 placed under home quarantine and seven others are lodged at hotel on their own expense, he said.

Earlier, state chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo had said that the government allowed returnees clearing Rapid Antibody Test or permitted and recommended by competent authorities to be placed under home quarantine as the state government does not have enough institutional quarantine facilities to accommodate them all.