Kohima, Aug 13 (UNI) Nagaland Chief Minister and the Leader of the House Neiphiu Rio today gave a statement on COVID -19 Pandemic at the floor of the Sixth Session of the Thirteenth Assembly Session. In his statement, Rio said that the COVID -19 pandemic has swept the world including our country in the last 6 months infecting millions of people and causing thousands of deaths. Rio also stated that unlike other states Nagaland remained relatively free from the Novel Coronavirus in the initial phase giving precious time for the state to be prepared.
Rio highlighted the current status of positive COVID cases in state remarked that ‘so far there are no cases where we cannot trace the source and hence Health and Family Department is of the view that there is no community transmission in Nagaland’.
He said, the frontline workers, doctors and nurses, district administration and police, NSDMA, Municipal authorities, other essential services departments are working 24x7 to deal with multiple challenges brought on by the pandemic. Rio also said that they are working in close coordination with Tribal Hohos, Mass based civil society organizations, Church organizations and countless volunteers who are giving their invaluable services to handle the crisis. The Chief Minister said that the focus is on improving and upgrading the health infrastructure as well as creating and running quarantine centers, COVID hospitals and COVID Care centers. He added that the Government not only created sufficient testing capacities in the state in record time, but also substantially augmented the number of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel besides roping in private hospitals to supplement the Government effort in dealing with the crisis. Rio said, more than 62 crores have been spend for improving the medical infrastructure and putting in place systems, equipments and manpower for winning the battle against the pandemic. He said that getting resources has been tough given our overall constraints and reduction in the revenues due to pandemic and lockdown.