Relief camps battle to keep Covid at bay

nGUWAHATI: Amid floods that have affected over 2.5 million people in 24 districts of Assam and claimed 84 lives, the state has to deal with the additional challenge of curbing the spread of coronavirus disease pandemic in 521 relief camps across the state. No Covid case has been reported from these relief camps yet, officials said.

“In view of Covid-19, we had issued guidelines in May itself on management of flood relief camps. District administrations have followed those rules, but floods this year have been unrelenting, making it tougher for them,” said Pankaj Chakraborty, project coordinator of the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA).

Over 50,000 displaced people have taken shelter in the 521 relief camps in 24 of the 33 districts of the state.the local administrations are trying to implement a new set of rules, which require safety and social distancing among inmates of these camps.

As per the guidelines, district officials have been told to identify additional relief camps according to the population density of villages to earmark space for social distancing. Unlike earlier when 3.5 sq m of space in relief camps was earmarked for each person, the figure was doubled to 7 sq m to ensure there’s one metre’s distance between two camp inmates.

Golaghat district project officer Ronney Rajkumar, disaster management authority, said, “There are 22 relief camps in our district at present and 3,240 persons are staying there. We have provided face masks, sanitisers, soaps at the relief camps. Though we have had cases of inmates suffering from cough, cold etc, no one has been found Covid-19 positive yet.”

“We have been staying at a relief camp since July 13. Local officials informed us about maintaining hygiene and social distancing and we are trying to follow as much as possible,” Ramen Doley, a farmer in Golaghat, who is staying at a relief camp at Mungilal lower primary school, in Golaghat district, along with 126 other inmates.