SHILLONG: The Chief Minister, Conrad Sangma, said the state needs to be mentally prepared as anything can happen with a large number of state citizens stranded in different parts of the country returning home.
“It’s fair to expect things would happen and we should not be surprised and be mentally prepared,” the chief minister told media persons.
The words turned out to be prophetic, as later in the evening he tweeted to inform about the first positive case in Garo Hills.
Reacting to a query on the spike in COVID-19 cases in neighbouring Guwahati, Sangma said both the society and administration need to be alert.
Maintaining that testing and proper quarantine is the key to ensure that the situation does not get out of hand, the chief minister reiterated that the government is watchful and multiple tests are being done at different levels.
On offers of educational institutions and churches to provide their premises for setting up quarantine centres, he said that everything will be decided as per the situation and all the deputy commissioners, local officials and local village leadership will take action as and when required.
“This is an option which will be utilised as per the situation,” the chief minister said.
Although the state has one of the largest quarantine centres in the North East with 250 beds, overall it has only 1000 beds to cater to a population of over 37 lakh.
