Understanding containment zone Indiscipline writ large

    13-Jul-2020
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The situation at Jiribam is not a joke. It is serious. A hotspot it is now. Everything points to cluster transmission but is the matter given the seriousness it deserves ? A pertinent question that may be raised in the backdrop of the fact that despite the suggestion that a COVID-19 Care Centre be opened at Harinagar at Jiribam  from July 13, no doctors or healthcare workers have been deputed to man the proposed centre. This lackadaisical approach does not exactly mirror the seriousness of the situation there. There is as yet no official explanation on what exactly happened at Ukhrul when a number of inmates were first declared negative, then declared positive and out of some tested again some were found positive. Moreover how was a girl inmate declared positive after her discharge from a quarantine centre at the same district some days back at Ukhrul ? These are all questions with no answers yet, but definitely these leave an uncomfortable feeling in everyone. Moreover how strictly are the guidelines enforced or followed by people who come under areas which have been declared containment zones ? No one is allowed to go into the areas which have been tagged a containment zone and no one is allowed to come out either but such is the geographical lay out of the leikais that domestic wastes generated in a house which falls inside a containment zone may be dumped onto the truck that comes to collect the wastes in another leirak that is outside the containment zone. The truck may not be allowed to enter the containment zone, but as pointed out, such is the layout that a people from a homestead which falls under a containment zone may come via the leiraks which are found in every leikai and deposit the wastes for the truck to carry away. A serious poser this is for it involves the health of everyone and what is being talked about here is a virus that is highly contagious and for which there is as yet no vaccine.
A containment zone should be seen beyond prohibiting the entry and exit of people from the earmarked area, but all should come to the realisation that physically carting the day’s waste from a house which comes under a containment zone via the many leiraks and putting the same onto the truck that comes will defeat the very purpose of putting an area or a leikai under a containment zone. This entails not only moving material waste but also means that there will be close contact with others while carting the day’s waste to the truck. Be responsible citizens, this is what COVID-19 demands, but has this point been digested ? From sneaking out of a quarantine centre, to merry making disregarding all safety protocols, to coming out on the road to protest, not everything is right with the conduct of many inmates who are housed in quarantine centres. The latest report that women inmates of a quarantine centre at Kangpokpi were involved in a tussle with the police on duty is disturbing. Discipline is not only about a certain time period but should be a lifelong trait of everyone and if women inmates felt they needed to give vent to their anger by obstructing frontline workers then something is seriously wrong. It is conduct like this which is extremely disturbing. The Government is bending backwards to keep them safe and secure in quarantine centres and this is something which should be appreciated.