SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Friday informed that testing of all the primary contacts of the state’s first COVID-19 patient, who passed away on Wednesday, would be completed within the next two days.
Talking to media persons after a review meeting at the Civil Hospital here on Friday, he admitted that it was a huge task since the number of primary contacts is very large.
Stating that the government has to be prepared for different kinds of situation, he added the goal was to carry out 400 to 500 tests a day and efforts were under way to set up two to three more testing centres in the state. “We are lucky to have an institute like NEIGRHIMS which has the capacity to conduct 100 tests a day,” Sangma said.
He informed that the government was in touch with ICMR for approval to Nazareth Hospital here to conduct testing.
“We hope that we will get a positive response from ICMR very soon,” he said.
On identification of the source of COVID-19, he said the government was working on it. “We are looking at different angles to trace the source”, he said.
During his meeting earlier with officials and doctors of the Civil Hospital, the chief minister was briefed about the situation.
“I also wanted to meet the doctors and have a better understanding of things. We also discussed on the way ahead. I would like to appreciate the work being done by doctors and health workers”, Sangma said.
