Residents block road, stop medical team from performing duty

                                                                                     Photo by Talar Yuto

Staff Reporter
NAHARLAGUN, Apr 2: A group of residents of Polo Colony here reportedly stopped a medical team from entering the colony on Thursday by erecting a barricade at the colony’s approach road.
The medical team was on its way to the recently designated quarantine facility at the Bharat Scouts & Guides (BSG) headquarters in Polo Colony. The group of residents reportedly asked the medical team to leave and shift the patients to some other location. They denied entry to the team and refused to pay heed to the administration’s request.
At the request of the medical team, Additional District Magistrate Talo Potom and EAC Ashok Tajo reached there and tried to convince the group, but were unsuccessful.
The medical team was later compelled to shift the 11 persons who were under quarantine at the BSG headquarters to the designated quarantine facility at Nemko Hotel here.
TRIHMS NCD nodal officer, Dr Gomi Basar, informed The Arunachal Times that the total number of persons currently in quarantine is 24, comprising four students and 20 others (15 males and 9 females) who had come into contact with the Nizamuddin returnees.
“Of them, six each were traced from Jullang and Nirjuli, one from Harekmal Basti in Naharlagun, and seven from Ganga market and F-G Sector in Itanagar. While picking up one of the returnees from Nizamuddin Markaz, who was staying at Harekmal Basti, I had to give an explanation to the other residents there about our visit. I asked them not to create panic and desist from stigmatizing the person’s family. I told them that the person did not have any Covid-19 symptoms, and that the medical team would take the person for quarantine as a precaution.
“However, there is no need for them to panic and people should circulate the same message to other people through social media too to prevent unnecessary panic,” Dr Basar said.
He informed that of the five persons who were earlier placed under quarantine on Wednesday, one tested negative and was discharged on Thursday.
The quarantine centres, which became functional from 30 March, have a doctor and three nurses each on duty 24×7.