Chief Minister Pema Khandu inspected the exclusively dedicated Covid-19 hospital at the MLA apartments in Itanagar on Monday and declared that hospital is ready to start functioning. It is an extension of the Tomo Riba Institute of Health & Medical Sciences (TRIHMS), Naharlagun. Further, the dedicated Covid health centre (DCHC) has also been made operational in Midpu. These infrastructures should help in the battle against Covid-19 to a large extent in the state capital. Now that these two infrastructures are ready, the state government should immediately take steps to shift the patients from the TRIHMS to these two new hospitals.
The TRIHMS should be made free of Covid-19 patients as soon as possible. It is the main hospital of the state, catering to the needs of the majority of the people in the state. Maximum number of patients depends on the TRIHMS for treatment. As long as Covid-19 patients are kept there, the chances of infection further spreading remains high. Earlier, the cases of doctors at the TRIHMS getting infected had created fear among the visitors. Also, the state government should not mix up quarantine centres and Covid care centres (CCC). Though all the precautionary measures are taken, still there are chances of infection spreading. At present, BPL Colony in Lekhi and the senior government officers apartments in Itanagar are functioning both as CCC as well as quarantine centres. The health department should take a decision to convert one of them into a CCC and the other as a quarantine centre. This will definitely reduce the chances of infection.