SHILLONG: As many as ten people out of the 41 who attended the wedding ceremony at Greenwood Resort, Khanapara have tested positive for COVID-19.
Director of Health Services (MI), Dr. Aman War on Monday informed that so far 104 high risk contacts of the wedding group have been identified but the number is expected to rise as further contact tracing is still on. Those who attended the wedding ceremony have moved all over the city after returning from Guwahati, he added.
He informed that teams deputed by the Health department carried out contact tracing in various parts of the city on Monday and traced 78 contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Commissioner and Secretary, Health Department, Sampath Kumar said that all 78 persons would be tested on Tuesday.
It is learnt that the 78 people include the contacts of those who attended the wedding party at Greenwood Resort, Khanapara and have, since, been tested positive.
The Health department has deputed nine teams comprising 36 personnel to initiate contact tracing of positive cases for two days which started on Monday.
Two teams each have been deployed for Lady Keane, Laban and Pynthorbah while there is one team each for Bishnupur, Demseiniong and Upper Mawprem.
Meanwhile, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Alexander Laloo Hek informed that the total number of active cases in the state has gone up to 276.
On Monday, 18 new cases were detected in the state, including 6 at NEIGRIHMS, while one patient recovered in Ri Bhoi.
While the DHS announced detection of 12 positive cases on Monday, NEIGRHIMS Medical Superintendent Dr. Noor Topno informed that six more people were tested positive at the hospital on Monday.
The total number of active cases in East Khasi Hills is 242 (182 BSF personnel, two Air Force personnel and 58 others), 19 in Ri-Bhoi, nine in West Garo Hills, two each in East Jaintia Hills and South Garo Hills and one each in East Garo Hills and North Garo Hills.
With the six cases detected on Monday, NEIGRIHMS now has reported 13 COVID-19 cases.
Out of the total 30 samples tested on Monday, six were found to be positive while the rest were negative.
Dr Topno said that the six people who tested positive on Monday are high-risk contacts of the BSF personnel who had tested positive earlier this month.
Of the remaining seven, two have a history of interstate travel to Kolkata and North Tripura while the five others, including a staff nurse, were found to be positive during screening.
However, what is adding to the confusion is that the institute has not been able to trace the “source” from where the staff nurses contacted the novel coronavirus. Dr. Topno said that the staff nurse had not attended to duties in any of the COVID-19 wards in NEIGRHIMS.
“She did not come into contact with any positive patient and no positive patient had been to the CTVS ICU,” Dr. Topno said.
Stating that the nurse stays in Demseiniong, Dr Topno said that once the contact tracing is done, they will be able to pinpoint whether she contacted COVID-19 from the locality or the hospital.
He informed that 111 persons have been identified as high risk contacts of the positive patients while 121 are low risk contacts.
Meanwhile, the Director of NEIGRIHMS, Dr P Bhattacharya informed that they are proposing to increase testing capacity of the institute, which at present is running 600 RT-PCR tests in a day.
