Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma has termed the COVID-19 situation in the state “very serious” and urged the citizens to strictly adhere to health protocols.
As COVID-19 cases keep on mounting with Meghalaya reporting 130 new cases and one more fatality on April 26, Sangma said that the situation will turn worse if health protocols are not followed strictly.
“The situation is very serious and if we do not take the right steps in this point in time, we could see the situation getting from bad to worse,” he said after a review meeting on the prevailing health situation in the state.
As approximately 65 per cent of the returnees are testing positive for COVID-19, Sangma said the Meghalaya government has decided to ask the returnees to compulsorily quarantine for seven days even if RT-PCR tests show negative results.
He said if the current trend of positive cases continues the way it is, the situation could become extremely difficult by mid-May.
“Though the virus is spreading faster this time, the only silver lining in this whole thing is that there is a solution which is the vaccination which we are pushing at the earliest,” he added.
“As you are aware, the numbers are still high, and we still see positive rate as one of the highest in the past 12-14 months. Therefore, the situation is serious and different kind of containment strategies have been adopted,” the Meghalaya CM said.
“We are looking at a situation where we want to avoid lockdown but at the same time to contain situation, we need to put more and more restrictions at least in the Shillong city area,” Sangma emphasised.
Sangma, who has already had a bout of the infection, got himself vaccinated for the second dose of Covishield on April 26.
“I appeal to those eligible to take their vaccine shot in centers near them,” he said.
