The Meghalaya government has adopted more approaches to reduce the impact of COVID19 in the state.
Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma along with his Cabinet colleagues had a meeting with all the MLAs from East Khasi Hills district in Shillong on Friday, where it was decided to form COVID19 committee in each Assembly constituency.
The committee will be headed by the respective legislators.
The meeting stressed the need to increase the number of beds in corona care centres by having community corona care centres in the village level in consultation with the community and village leaders apart from adopting home quarantine strategies wherever feasible.
The meeting discussed and solicited views from the elected representatives towards the government’s long-term COVID management strategy.
“The meeting discussed and deliberated at length different strategies and approaches that the government could adopt to reduce the impact of COVID19 and better tackle the rise of COVID positive cases, by exploring different options such as increasing the number of beds in corona care centres, designating community corona care centres in consultation with the community and local leaders,” the chief minister said.
The chief minister also said it was also decided to “adopt home quarantine strategies wherever feasible”.
The meeting decided that committees be constituted in each Assembly constituency to be headed by the respective MLAs for better coordination between the different COVID management committees, district administrations, different blocks and various departments.
The Chief Minister admitted that the COVID situation is becoming complicated, and urgent collective actions are required in the seemingly long battle ahead against the virus.
“When it comes to COVID19, we all need to work as a team. The public representatives, officials, local leaders, Rangbah Shnongs, Nokmas and citizens all have to come together to ensure that we minimize the growth and spread of COVID19,” the chief minister said.
He said, “Lockdown is nothing but a temporary solution against something that the country and the state have to face against in the long run”.
The chief minister informed that such meetings would be also convened in other districts of the state wherein senior Cabinet Ministers will be holding consultative meetings with different public representatives.
Meanwhile, director of health services (MI), Dr Aman War informed that 57 new COVID19 positive cases were detected in the state on Friday, taking active cases to 953 while 19 more persons have recovered from the viral infection, increasing the number of recoveries to 749 so far.
With 963 active cases, 749 patients, who have recovered, and six deaths, the total COVID19 cases in Meghalaya stand at 1,718.
Among the new cases, Dr War said 33 (31 civilians, 2 armed forces) were from East Khasi Hills district, 17 from West Khasi Hills (all results of random testing at Shahlang), three paramilitary forces personnel from West Garo Hills, two persons from East Garo Hills and one from West Jaiñtia Hills district.
War said East Khasi Hills recorded 599, including 376 civilians, 221 in West Garo Hills, 92 in Ri-Bhoi, 18 in West Khasi Hills, 10 in North Garo Hills, 8 in East Jaiñtia Hills, 5 in West Jaiñtia Hills, 4 in South West Garo Hills, 3 in East Garo Hills, 2 in South Garo Hills and 1 in South West Khasi Hills.
Out of 70,413 swab samples sent for testing till date, 68,356 have come out negative (43,378 samples tested through RT-PCR, and 24,978 samples tested during random testing by using antigen, truenaat and cbnaat), while the outcome of 339 samples is awaited.
