TURA: A total of 895 citizens from the state were brought back in a special train to the region, arriving in government arranged buses in the early hours of Saturday morning in Shillong and Tura.
There were 461 returnees, mostly students, to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills region and another 434 to the Garo Hills. Among the returnees included a young mother and her infant child.
“Among the returnees there were twelve, including four from West Garo Hills, whose results from a rapid blood test taken for detection of antibodies showed positive. So we conducted the TRUENAT Beta CoV test and RT-PCR tests for Covid-19 and the results cleared them of any infection. We are expecting similar results from Shillong also,” informed Meghalaya government’s Health Commissioner and Secretary P Sampath Kumar confidently while speaking to The Shillong Times on Saturday evening.
Kumar also clarified that a positive result on the rapid test does not mean a person has the Covid-19 infection. He added that the test can detect positive if the person has other forms of illness or infection other than Covid-19.
While the TRUENAT Beta CoV test was conducted on the four Garo Hills returnees at the specially set up Covid-19 test lab in Tura’s civil hospital on Saturday morning, the remaining eight were tested at NEIGRIHMS medical institute with the Real Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR diagnostic tests for Covid-19.
Both, TRUENAT and RT-PCR Covid-19 tests, are recognized by the WHO and ICMR for their accuracy in detection of the virus which has caused havoc across the world since the pandemic began over four months ago.
The over 800 Meghalaya citizens were part of a large group of returnees from the north east who left Chennai and Bangalore in the special train. They were received by Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on their arrival at Guwahati railway station late on Saturday night and escorted into dozens of waiting buses to their respective destinations in Shillong and Tura.
On arrival in the Garo Hills they were taken to the inter-State Bus Terminus at Chasingre, 12 kms outside of Tura, where medical teams and government officials received them, providing them with food and water and undertaking medical screening.
It was during the initial rapid test screening that four of the arrivals were found positive with antibodies in their blood compelling authorities to push everyone who were part of the group into a quarantine zone.
“We had to put 89 Garo Hills returnees into government designated quarantine centres while results were awaited of the Covid-19 tests on the four positive members at Tura civil hospital. All of them have now been cleared and released for home quarantine,” confirmed West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh.
The state is gearing up for the return of another 227 students and workers from the state of Gujarat on Sunday.
Number of Returnees from Chennai and Bangalore on Saturday
East Garo Hills: 61, East Jaintia Hills: 36, East Khasi Hills: 188, North Garo Hills: 152, Ri Bhoi: 74, South Garo Hills: 29, South West Garo Hills: 57, South West Khasi Hills: 24, West Garo Hills: 135, West Jaintia Hills: 69, West Khasi Hills: 70, None arrival: 166
Expected arrival from Gujarat on May 17
East Khasi Hills: 110, West Garo Hills: 20, Ri Bhoi: 14, East Jaintia Hills: 24, North Garo Hills: 23, West Khasi Hills: 9, South West Khasi Hills: 10, West Jaintia Hills: 9, South West Garo Hills: 2, South Garo Hills: 4, East Garo Hills: 2, None arrival: 4