About an hour after sunset a couple of small pickups draw up outside the gates of the Manipur Veterinary & Animal Husbandry Services building. Once cleared, the vehicles enter a shamiana and cooks wearing dhotis begin unloading large vessels of piping-hot food. It’s dinnertime at the Rapid Response Team (RRT) quarantine zone, situated at a five-minute walk from the Chief Minister’s bungalow.

Nearly 300 RRT workers have been lodged here since July 26 at the Government’s expenditure, trading home comforts for makeshift dormitories, HBO, mineral water and daily doses of Tamiflu plus medical checkups, after spending the better part of the day culling farm birds as part of the drive to control the spread of bird flu.

This is life under quarantine, during which period these workers will not be allowed to meet their families or leave the premises for purposes other than culling, and that too as a team, covered head to toe in Personnel Protection Equipment (PPE) kits. But most workers aren’t complaining.

“The food is good, stuff we get on occasions like weddings,” grins an RRT member as he pours himself water in a plastic disposable.

Senior officers in-charge of RRT teams say many workers were penniless when they were asked not to leave the quarantine zone. “They had no idea they wouldn’t be able to go home. This is a first-of-its-kind experience for the state, and we are meeting all needs through our Director’s sanction—from paan and cigarettes to cold drinks and cable TV.”

... contd.