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On the auspicious occasion of Shravan Purnima and Raksha bandhan, State Chief Minister Pema Khandu laid the foundation stone of the 200-bedded Multi-Specialty Hospital at the Rama Krashna Mission Hospital here on Sunday, August 22 last. He also dedicated the newly installed Siemens Magnetom 1.5 Tesla MRI machine of the hospital to the people of the state. Addressing the monks, doctors, nurses and employees of the hospital, Khandu applauded the role of R K Mission Hospital in the fight against the COVID 19 pandemic. He said the doctors, nurses, para medics and all staff of the hospital risked themselves but did not stop serving the sick and needy through thick and thin. “People of the state, particularly residents of Itanagar remains indebted to you all,” he said. Acknowledging the contributions of the R K Mission in both health and education sectors, the Chief Minister said it was ‘payback’ time for the state government. “RKM has been giving to us since the early days of our existence. We decided it was time to give it back even if small. Therefore, we decided that the proposed 200 bedded multispecialty hospital should be established as part of the R K Mission Hospital,” he said. Khandu requested the management to set a target of two years for completion of the project so that it can start serving the people at the earliest. He suggested that the upcoming hospital building be constructed keeping in mind the natural ambience and go for a ‘green’ building. Talking about the pandemic, Khandu said that it came as an eye opener to the government. “I being the Chief Minister even wasn’t aware of the status of our health facilities, especially at the ground level. Due to the pandemic we had repeated serious reviews, consultations and meetings at all levels, which subsequently revealed the poor condition of our health infrastructure. It was this pandemic that enabled us to ‘right’ the ‘wrong’ and revamp the health sector in last one and half years that we couldn’t do in decades,” he informed. Having learnt the lesson the hard way, Khandu said that the state government is seriously improving the health sector through creation of infrastructure, manpower and facilities besides procuring modern and latest health equipment. “We are completely overhauling infrastructure and facilities of all the district hospitals. We have recruited and will continue recruiting sufficient doctors including specialists, nurses of all categories, paramedics and other sanitary and assisting staff as required,” he informed. Khandu also informed that the government has decided to select and develop one hospital each in every assembly constituency of the state with all facilities. Remembering his late father and former chief minister, Dorjee Khandu’s close association with the hospital (the hospital has a ward after the name of the late chief minister), Khandu assured the state government’s support to it for years to come. As a gesture of appreciation and gratitude, he donated Rs 20 lakhs to the hospital from his personal sources.

ZIro April 19: A meeting was convened in the office chamber of the Deputy Commissioner to work out the District Action Plan for containment of the second wave of Covid-19 for Lower Subansiri district here on Monday. Lower Subansiri Deputy Commissioner Smti Somcha Lowang while chairing the meeting emphasized on the need to set aside the complacency amongst the officers and the public because of the low Covid-19 positive cases in the district and gear up to face the second wave. Inviting opinion s from all the Administrative officers and Bazaar Welfare Committee members in ensuring less crowding in the market places, she suggested for sanitization of the shop premises by the shop owners and adopting no mask, no sale strategy. She further called for intensified IEC activities to improve vaccination coverage and enforce Covid appreciate behaviour. It was also decided to stop the weekly bazaars across Lower Subansiri district as most of the vendors come from the neighboring states. Presenting the District Action Plan DMO Dr. Tage Kanno said, the mapping of positive cases and further isolation will be vital to contain the disease in the district. He called for making the check gates and the District Covid-19 Control room functional immediately. All hotels, home stays and resorts will mandatorily maintain a database of all the persons from outside the state in a format provided by the District Surveillance Team and provide a copy to the to the team on daily basis,” he further added. Various other modalities like compulsory wearing of masks, restricting public gatherings, enforcement of appropriate behaviour in letter and spirit in the educational institutions, management of CCC and testing facilities, activating area wise incident commanders etc were discussed in detail during the meeting. ADC Millo Kojin, SDO B.Tawsik, administrative officers, DDMO smt. Nima Drema and members of Bazaar welfare committee.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu this morning held two separate virtual meetings – first with legislators and the second with corporators, councilors and zilla parishad members – to take stock of the COVID 19 situation in the state and to get suggestions for the government to deal with it. Khandu said the second wave of the dreaded virus has emerged as a real threat owing to its more infectious nature resulting in higher mortality rate than the first wave that had rocked the world last year. The virtual meeting, conceptualized and chaired by Governor Brig (Rtd) B D Mishra, specifically concentrated on preparedness of five districts that have witnessed a spike in COVID positive cases in recent times. These are Lower Dibang Valley, Papum Pare, Namsai, East Siang and West Kameng. Khandu emphasized on strict adherence to COVID 19 SoPs while encouraging all eligible people to get vaccinated. He dispensed rumours on ineffectiveness and side-effects of the vaccine and said that the vaccine being provided by the government is safe and effective against the deadly virus. “Till yesterday, we have vaccinated about 1.35 lakh people. Going by the rapid increase in COVID positive cases, we have to get more and more people vaccinated. Legislators, corporators, councilors and panchayat members need to encourage people to go for vaccination besides creating awareness on compulsory wearing of masks, maintaining social distance and proper hygiene,” he said. Khandu also emphasized on more testing through Truenat and RT-PCR. He said testing, tracking and treatment has to be ramped up. “By Monday the government, through the department of Health and Family Welfare, will notify the guidelines to combat this second wave of corona virus,” he informed. All entry points to the state will be on vigil and testing will be made compulsory for all people entering the state. Also restrictions will be put on social gatherings and functions. Several legislators and local body leaders urged the government to reduce the RT-PCR and RAT charges for the poor to get tested for the virus. Many also suggested that the vaccination be made available to people of all age groups. At present it is being offered only to people above 45 years of age. The demand for vaccination to all came from the alarming report that the second wave of COVID 19 has victimized people within the age bracket of 15 to 29 years the most. Health Minister AloLibang sought the cooperation and support of all to arrest the spread of Corona virus in the state. He said compared to other parts of the country, Arunachal Pradesh is in the safer side but people will have to be cautious. “We successfully thwarted the virus last year. If we are all together is in this battle, we will again succeed,” he said. The Governor, in his remarks, appreciated the concern and enthusiasm of the state government to deal with the pandemic. He too emphasized on ramping up covid tests and the vaccination drive. He expressed faith on the state government under the leadership of Khandu and said the state will emerged victorious in this battle against COVID 19 for the second time.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu today held the 3rd e-Pragati meeting through virtual conference with all Deputy Commissioners of the districts. The meeting was attended by representatives of BRO, NHIDCL and other central agencies for the first time besides the Chief Secretary and Commissioners of the state government. Alerting all Deputy Commissioners on the recent surge in COVID 19 cases in the state as well in the country, the Chief Minister directed them to implement the SoPs notified by the state health department a day earlier. He took stock of the check-gates on all entry points of the state from the respective Deputy Commissioners. The Chief Minister said that check-gates in all entry points need to be put under vigil and all entering the state will have to go through mandatory RAT test in case they do not have a valid certificate of a recent test or a certificate mentioning they have got both the doses of the covid vaccine. However, he informed, inter-district movement of people and vehicles will not be affected. As per official records, Arunachal Pradesh has 13 entry points, all connecting Assam. “This second wave of the virus is different from the earlier one and more dangerous. It is alarming that it has shown a trend of infecting younger people more. So strict adherence to SoPs must be ensured by all district administrations,” he said. Appreciating the district administrations for successfully combating the first wave, Khandu sought similar cooperation from all in dealing with the new wave. Till date Arunachal Pradesh has 105 active cases with a per-day highest of 28 covid positive cases. Khandu reiterated that sample collection and testing need to be escalated while vaccination drive needs to be intensified. The state government has a target of vaccinating at least 3.5 lakhs of its population. However so far only about 85000 people have been vaccinated. He appealed all people above 45 years of age to get vaccinated. “We have no shortage of the vaccine. So people eligible as per the guidelines of central government, I urge them all to get vaccinated,” he appealed. Khandu also called upon the district administrations to ensure compulsory wearing of masks at all public places. He informed that district administrations have been empowered to impose a penalty of Rs 500 on people who do not wear masks in public places. “Together we have successfully combated the virus last year. We can do it again. Guidelines and SoPs will be notified time to time as per the situation, which need to be implemented in letter and spirit by the district administrations,” he said. Khandu also took stock of the hospitals across the state and their preparedness to tackle the situation. The Chief Minister also expressed concern on the reported cases of ‘proxy’ teachers in government schools of the state. He directed the DCs and DDSEs to personally visit schools and check attendance of teachers. He called on people to directly file complain with the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) if any such ‘proxy’ teacher is detected in schools of their area. “If any such complaint is received by my office, the deputy commissioner and DDSE of that particular district will be solely held responsible,” he cautioned. The Chief Minister also took report of various issues like forest clearance and land acquisition for important projects in the state besides status of the Hollongi airport, Miao-Vijayanagar road, Balipara-Charduar-Tawang road, e-office, installation of VSATs, construction of hospitals, launching of 27×7 ambulance service, construction and functionalization of Ekalavya Model Schools, etc. He also took action-taken report of the earlier two e-Pragati meetings.

Due to surge in Covid second wave cases a meeting with PRI leaders, Representatives from NGos, Army Para military forces and other concern department heads was conducted in the conference hall of DC office Tawang this morning. The meeting was chaired by Honble MLA Tawang Shri Tsering Tashi, Speaking to the members present Shri Tsering Tashi, expressed his gratitude to the District Administration headed by DC for their sincere and dedicated service during lock downs last time and he also conveyed his gratitude to all the person and NGOs who supported the Administration and Government in containing COVID first wave. But we have became little careless since November last, we shouldn’t forget that danger of COVID-19 is yet to be over, taking reference from various sources he said that second wave of COVID-19 is more infectious and we should be very careful. He further said that we should increase our awareness activities informing our public to use face masks regularly, maintain social distancing, and minimize social gatherings. We should encourage all to come forward and take vaccinations those who are eligible for it. We have to strictly follow and implement the SOPs being issued by Government from time to time till we succeed in stopping the chain of COVID infection he added. Expressing his concern for the drivers carrying essential commodities and problems faced by them during lockdowns last year ZPC Tawang Shri Leki Gombu said that in case of such situation we need to take care of these drivers, because they don’t get food for days due to shut down of all the line hotels, they are also frontline workers. He further requested the GREF authorities to strictly monitor the movement of their personnel and follow SOPs. While DC Tawang Shri Sang Phuntsok, informed that as per government notification received all the people coming from outside shall have to compulsorily go through RAT testing at Point of entry. This time all the services like COVID care, and transportation etc are to be paid by the person availing these services. All kind of gatherings having more than 50 persons are restricted and he further instructed DDMO to activate all the Incident commanders and District control room. Earlier DMO Tawang Dr. Wangdi Lama shared his information about second wave of COVID-19 with the house. Representatives of GREF, and other NGOs also kept their views and suggestions in the meeting.