The District Headquarters Hospital in Manipur’s Thoubal district declined to carry out COVID-19 testing on Wednesday. Hospital authorities claimed not enough testing kits were available. The disconcerting news came at a time people of the district had been denied testing and treatment at two medical colleges and hospitals in other parts of the State.
Officials said that 434 persons came to the Thoubal District Headquarters Hospital for COVID-19 testing, and another 400 persons to the hospital at Wangkhem. As the angry people refused to leave, the hospital authority announced that there were just 350 testing kits available. Altogether 350 persons could be tested and the rest would be tested on Thursday, they said. One youth, who did not wish to be named, alleged, “There will be problems on Thursday since the list of persons for testing on Thursday has been finalised. Of late, people from Thoubal have been discriminated against and denied various treatments. As a result, at least two persons have died.”
The Congress in Manipur had flayed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) coalition government for this kind of discrimination. There has been no reaction from the government so far.
A villager said that most of the COVID-19 affected persons in the district had no travel history. Congress Legislature Party leader and former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi said, “Some districts have higher number of COVID-19 patients than Thoubal district. Why has not the government imposed a ban on treatment in these districts?”
Meanwhile, 21 Myanmarese nationals, who have been stranded in Manipur due to the outbreak of COVID-19, were handed over to the Myanmarese authorities on Wednesday. Some others, including students, have been sent back in the recent past.
