Chief Minister N. Biren announced that Manipur was now fully prepared to face a possible third wave of COVID-19 and the emergence of variants of the coronavirus. Mr. Biren said this on the sidelines of his visit to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS), Imphal, on Thursday morning.
He was inspecting the construction of an oxygen plant on the JNIMS campus. Once it’s commissioned, the plant will have the capacity to produce 2,000 KL of medical oxygen, he said. The oxygen plant is expected to be commissioned on July 15.
Mr. Biren added that another plant was almost ready to supply 200 cylinders of medical oxygen to the post-COVID-19 ward in the hospital. A 100-bed ward is also ready in the hospital complex, which will be upgraded soon since there are fresh threats in the form of variants.
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The CM noted: “The only effective means of avoiding COVID-19 is vaccination. All sections of people should get vaccinated. Some scheming people have been spreading a wild rumour about the efficacy of vaccines, which have been approved by experts. It’s disheartening that many people seem to believe this and are avoiding vaccination. If non-cooperation continues, the government will have to use force and people should not blame the police and the government.”
He regretted that some persons had politicised the vaccination campaign. Millions of Indians and people in other countries had been vaccinated, he said. The remaining sections of people should not hesitate to get vaccinated soon because rumours on the efficacy of vaccines and its “side effects” were baseless, Mr. Biren said.
The response to the vaccination campaign in Manipur has been lukewarm and leaves much to be desired, according to official sources.
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