DIMAPUR, April 23 - The Mon district of Nagaland that lies along the Indo-Myanmar border, has been at the forefront of the ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Significantly, the district administration has taken a slew of measures in advance to combat the virus.
The Mon District COVID-19 War Room was set up on April 10, four days before Nagaland Governor RN Ravi suggested it for all the districts. State Chief Secretary Temjen Toy directed all deputy commissioners to set up the District COVID-19 War Rooms on April 21.
Mon DC Thavaseelan K pointed out that the war room comprises officials from the district administration, police, Health and Family Welfare, and various line departments. It acts as a single point for data collection and monitors people under quarantine on a daily basis, he added.
Thavaseelan said that 891 teams comprising village or ward-level task forces, ASHAs, ANMs, Anganwadi workers and teachers, were formed as a holistic response to the crisis. Though Mon district has not recorded any positive case so far, the district war room adopted an �active case search strategy� on April 13 to prevent any possible outbreak.
Every ward or village was divided into units of 50 households on the basis of the recent economic census, and a two-member team conducted surveys on symptoms, travel history, contacts with infected persons, etc. Thavaseelan said the data collection for every household in Mon district was completed on April 17.
Thavaseelan said four sub-divisional war rooms have been set up at Tobu, Aboi, Tizit and Naginimora subdivisions to function in tandem with the District COVID-19 War Room.
He said the district administration conducted a one-day training programme on contact listing and tracing for COVID-19 District Control Room and war room personnel, police and frontline Health workers on April 20.
Thavaseelan stated that a sample collection booth was installed at the Mon District Hospital on April 20. The booth was set up to ensure the safety of Health workers. It acts as a physical barrier between the patient and the Health worker during sample collection.
The booth also minimises the use of personal protection equipment (PPE) as the doctor collecting the sample from inside the kiosk does not require to wear a complete PPE set.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 volunteers for Mon district were trained on Thursday in two batches. The first batch comprised volunteers from the Red Cross, Youth Club and Nehru Yuva Kendra, while the second batch included Grade IV employees, Thavaseelan said. Altogether 88 volunteers attended the training programme.
