Keep the public informed on all countsCovid variants

The public needs to be informed. It cannot only be for academic interests. Hope the State Health Department and all the officials advising the Government in chalking out strategies and deciding how long people should be told to stay indoors get the point that is sought to be delivered here. In the daily statement issued to the media, the COVID-19 Common Control Room always make it a point to spell out the vaccination status of the deceased persons. This is fine and good for many of those who have fallen prey to the virus were not vaccinated and this can go some way in convincing the people to come out for the vaccination jabs. However on the flip side, it should also be acknowledged that quite a few of the deceased had received the first dose of the vaccine with even one who had received the two doses. This is where it becomes extremely important for the health professionals dealing with the virus to underline what variant of Covid was it that claimed their lives. Was it Delta, which is said be responsible for the rapid spread of the virus or was it the Alpha variant, Beta variant, Gamma variant ? These are variants of concern, according to the World Health Organisation and surely letting the people know which of these variants are responsible for the deaths even after inoculation can go a long way in enlightening the people on the virus. The others which have been dubbed as variants of ‘interest’ are Kappa, Lambda etc. Working out the variants which are responsible for the deaths will obviously take time but this is a point which can be made public once in a week or once in a fortnight. Apart from enlightening the people, such a move will also demonstrate the Government is intent on adopting a scientific approach to the pandemic. In other words, this is their job and it should be spelt out.
This is where the Government ought to demonstrate that it is taking up the needed steps to counter the virus and failing to look beyond spelling out the number of deaths and number of infections daily would reflect an immature approach. This is after much has been written here on how the term ‘contact tracing’ has been reduced to two words doled out daily to the media. The Sangai Express has already raised this point earlier but since nothing seems to have been done so far, it would help if the COVID-19 Common Control Room can give a break up of the number of tests conducted in each district, especially in some of the hill districts. This can go a long way in working out the daily positivity rate, but in the absence of such figure it is not at all comforting when a district reports only one positive. If one person returned positive result after a total of 10 persons were tested, then the positivity rate would still be 10 percent which is high by any standard. Better still on August 20, Noney reported nil positive case. This is good, but was it because only four or five people were tested or was it because of something else ? Only when the figures of tested are given, will it be known. This is about a question of transparency and keeping the people in the loop.