Nagaland police set up, operate 1027-bed quarantine centre

Police in Nagaland has set up the north-eastern state's biggest quarantine facility managed by police personnel, a senior official said on Sunday.

The 1027-bed centre at Ganeshpur was set up to augment the state government's efforts to check coronavirus, Nagaland DGP T John Longkumer said.

A police team reached the Ganeshnagar Special Economic Zone under the Dhansiripar sub-division in Dimapur on May 20 to assess, plan, organise and work out modalities to set up the facility, which was set up in a fortnight, he said.

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Work began to institutionally quarantine stranded returnees from other states, Nagaland Police ADGP (Admin) Sandeep Tamgadge told PTI.

DIG (Training) Aotemsu headed the team of officers handling accommodation, power supply, sanitation, water supply, office and control room, security, logistics, catering and transport there, Tamgadge said.

"Personal comfort and the risk of inevitable exposure to coronavirus took a back seat and all police personnel got the quarantine centre ready in record time," the IPS officer said.

Altogether 640 police personnel, including officers, were on the ground when the process to build the centre began, Tamgadge said.

The first batch of 509 returnees from Bengaluru, including 383 men and 126 women, arrived at the quarantine centre on June 5, followed by returnees from Punjab, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The Ganeshnagar centre is the biggest one in Nagaland to be built and managed by police for people of the state through the Community Oriented Police Service (COPS) initiative, he said.

A police medical team comprising doctors, nurses and other health Workers is stationed in the facility and attends to routine quarantine duties and other medical emergencies.

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The team has also been tasked with sample collection and swab testings and operates the TrueNat system, approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research to conduct coronavirus tests.

"Nagaland police have always overcome challenges and during the unprecedented coronavirus situation also, we have performed our duties going beyond the task of normal policing and have not only enforced the lockdown but also secured the various quarantine centres in the state," John Longkumer said.

"We resurrected an old disused industrial complex by clearing thick jungle, installing water lines, bathrooms, providing electricity and even digging a 1.25 lakh litre pond to replenish the water supply," the Nagaland police chief said.

Nagaland police are managing the quarantined persons, their testing, food, accommodation and medical facilities. "We thank the state government and civil society for helping us in this endeavour and imposing trust in our abilities," he said.