Believe it or not, some returnees have gone to the extent of wanting to spend time with their pets in quarantine centres in Meghalaya to overcome their “loneliness.”
“I was informed that some of those staying in quarantine centres that while waiting for their COVID-19 test reports , they had also asked the authorities to allow them to have their pets to be with them maybe out of desperation or loneliness,” deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters in Shillong on Monday.
He asked those staying in government’s quarantine centres to refrain from luxury living at this point and time.
“If this is allowed, then the government would have to feed the pets too. I want to make it clear that the government won’t be able to meet each and every demand of the returnees who have returned to the state and have been kept in quarantine centres until the reports of their RT-PCR tests are received,” Tynsong said.
He also urged the citizens to cooperate as the government has been trying its best to make those who are quarantining feel comfortable during their stay in such centres.
Tynsong also clarified that the results of the RT-PCR test may take time as in certain cases, it took five to six days for the test results to come out.
“Till the test results are received, we cannot allow anyone to go home,” he said.
As many as 785 persons are kept in different institutional quarantine centres put up by the Meghalaya government.
Earlier, some of the returnees who stay in quarantine centres have complained that the food which was served to them was not upto the mark, and the quarantine centres were not clean.
Tynsong however said that those staying in quarantine centres should first all be grateful to the government for being able to come back to the state.
Instead of complaining, Tynsong said, they should shoulder the responsibility by cleaning the quarantine centres if they found that the centres are dirty.