President ABAVP Puts Forward His Demands to the Chief Secretary
Port Blair, Sept. 6: Ms. Nancy a resident of Malacca Village, Car Nicobar breathed her last in the evening hours on 5th Sept. 2020 at G.B. Pant Hospital. She was suffering from COVID-19 and was referred from Car Nicobar to Port Blair. Officially this is the first death from Car Nicobar Island.
It has also come to light that a couple from Kinmai Village had passed away few days ago due to COVID-19. With these deaths the Nicobarese community is in deep state of fear and are in a panic mode.
Referring to the deaths of the members of the Nicobarese community, the President Akhil Bharatiya Adiwasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), Shri Rashid Yusoof in a letter to the Chief Secretary, A&N Administration has demanded for a separate Health Centre and COVID Ward. He requested that the Covid facility with isolation wards should be separated from the general health centre in Car Nicobar, Teressa, Katchal, Kamorta, Chowra and other islands in the Nicobar group. This will help protect the regular patients who visit the hospital. All the Covid facility must have a doctor available 24x7 along with ventilators.
There has been also complaints by the member of the tribal community of A&N Islands that lunch timing of some hospital wards are not similar to the eating habits of the tribals. Therefore due attention should be given to tribal culture and their habits.
The President ABAVP also demanded for proper Covid testing to be conducted on all suspects and their family as the tribal community has a habit of living in a large joint family. There must be mandatory Covid tests even for the deceased, as this will lead us to correct information on the reason for the death.
It was also demanded that instead of containment of the entire village, containment should be confined to the suspected houses with 24x7 observation by deploying staffs.