SHILLONG: Two more positive cases of COVID-19 were reported in the city on Saturday while a village has come forward to take care of the family of one.
With this, the number of active COVID cases has risen to 10 since the first patient, Dr Sailo Ryntathiang, passed away on April 15.
Besides the first patient, the government had announced about six positive cases while also mentioning that six more cases will have to be re-verified. Later, two more positive cases were announced.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said in his tweet on Saturday that both the positive cases are from the house of the deceased doctor. While one patient is a family member, the other is a helper in the house.
As the helper hails from Pomlakrai village under Mylliem Block, the Rangbah Shnong of the village asked everyone to show empathy and take care of the people and families who are affected by COVID-19.
Earlier, the Commissioner and Secretary, Health Department, Sampath Kumar also visited the village along with the Block Development Officer and medical officer to interact with the community and the family.
“We are building awareness and capacity of the community to deal with the disease without fear but with responsibility,” Kumar said.
Later, during his media briefing, the chief minister said the samples of four high risk primary contacts and 32 other primary contacts of the patient from the village have been collected.
Conrad said while the helper has been quarantined at a corona care centre, other primary contacts who are family members, are quarantined in their home.
“The village community led by the headman has decided that all the contacts will be kept under strict quarantine in the village with the support of frontline health workers and the community”, Conrad said.
He said while the state had sent 738 samples for testing on Saturday, 667 were negative and the results of 60 are awaited.
He said the condition of all the patients who have tested positive is stable.
The chief minister said they were still looking into all options to trace the person who transmitted the virus to the first patient. “We have gone back and traced the travel history of individuals and patients who have met the index patient. We are still examining the process. We are working and trying our best,” he said.
According to the chief minister, how many cases of COVID-19 the state can handle depends on how many critical cases come up.
Responding to a query, the chief minister said that somebody can be positive but the symptoms may be mild and what is important is that for the serious cases which require life support and ventilators, a system should be there to support them.
Pointing out that most of the cases throughout the world have been of mild symptoms and asymptomatic which do not need any medical attention but only need quarantine at home, he asserted that the question as to how many cases the state can handle depends on the critical cases. He informed that from the point of view of life support and ventilators, different arrangements have been made and close to 70-80 life support system with ventilators are there along with 200 basic ventilators. Earlier, the chief minister held a review meeting with deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong, home minister Lahkmen Rymbui, chief secretary MS Rao and health officials.
Talking about the review meeting, the chief minister said the purpose was to discuss about the many tests that are done, the different results that are coming up and the challenges faced by different centres.
He said this is a massive exercise and small issues keep on coming up and meetings are held daily to address those issues as well.
