Vikramaditya
Port Blair, June 14: The former Member of Parliament, Mr. Bishnu Pada Ray today requested the Prime Minister of India to cover 100% eligible islanders by vaccination due to extreme vulnerability, remoteness of islands, limited health infra and to protect particularly vulnerable aboriginal tribes
In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Ray demanded to provide necessary support to A & N Administration, which has till now managed corona cases quite well despite constraints largely due to effort of present Chief Secretary.
He demanded for institutional quarantine for those coming in flight and found positive after RTPCR test here.
Mr. Ray requested to cover free ration including sugar to all non government servant households excluding big business households.
He demanded that lockdown conditions may be relaxed in view of reducing rate of occupancy in oxygen fitted beds and low TPR. The period of relaxation including for non essential shops / establishments, construction activities may be increased to 8 AM to 1 PM.
Mr. Ray mentioned that the Islands are blessed with six aboriginal primitive tribes who are very vulnerable to any disease. “The Islands are remote, access is difficult in many Islands, having limited health infrastructure etc. therefore , as a special case, the islands may be targeted for 100 % vaccination within a Month in a targeted manner (including through private hospitals),” he added.
In his letter, he lauded the efforts of the present Chief Secretary. He mentioned that Corona Cases which went out of order earlier, was tackled effectively by present Chief Secretary who promptly introduced RTPCR testing at the Airport itself along with tests for passengers moving into inter islands. This measure stalled the spread of the virus to an extent and is appreciable.
He mentioned that in addition to the above, the efforts of the present Chief Secretary has resulted in setting up of 1000 CB oxygen plant shortly at the lone referral hospital at Port Blair; Number of agencies supplying oxygen has been increased to three from the earlier one agency; by personal intervention of Chief Secretary , good number of oxygen concentrators and ambulance has been added; timely arrangement of rare corona medicines like remdesivir, black fungus medicine etc and there is no shortage; ensuring supply of nutritious food to corona inpatients; it has been observed that file movement in secretariat has improved to a great extent; Administration is trying to procure RTPCR test machine and true NAT for different district hospitals and CHCs; the lone referral hospital has been turned into corona hospital. as a result many emergency cases in different wards are facing problem including operations, to overcome this, an exclusive corona ICU and general corona ward of 200 bed capacity is being set up at old Forest Corporation building here at Port Blair.
“As a result, today the TPR is only 1.8 ℅ and total active cases are only around 100 with only 20 odd cases on oxygen support. the Islands have been on lockdown from 2nd May onwards with only essential services open for limited time (presently four hours). one and half month of lockdown and its continuation is affecting the lower income and middle income group adversely including trade of non essential shops / construction activity etc.,” Mr. Ray added in his letter.
