TURA: The Garo Hills recorded its first case of COVID-19 after a woman returnee from Tamil Nadu tested positive for the disease on Tuesday evening.
The state had only on Monday emerged free from the disease after the 12th active patient tested negative twice in succession in Shillong. Of the 13 cases, the index patient had succumbed to the disease last month.
The thirty-three year old woman, who came from Erode district in Tamil Nadu as part of the second batch of returnees by train on Monday, was tested positive in the RT-PCR test for the virus. She was found to be asymptomatic and did not display any symptoms of the disease when the test was carried out.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma broke the news with a tweet from his official twitter handle, “One of the persons from Garo Hills, who came back from Chennai in the second batch has tested positive for COVID-19. The person is asymptomatic and has been in institutional quarantine in Tura. We are monitoring the situation.”
The chief minister asked not to panic but handle this with utmost care and responsibility. “We need to take care of elderly people and people with comorbid conditions. Asymptotic and young people are recovering from this by observing isolation,” assured the chief minister.
“She has tested positive for the virus and has been shifted to the corona care centre at the Tura Civil Hospital tonight,” confirmed West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Ram Singh on Tuesday night while speaking to The Shillong Times.
According to the deputy commissioner, the woman was among the over 35 returnees to the Garo Hills region on Monday, who came by train from Chennai. There were reportedly over 50 others who headed for the Shillong region, the same day.
“We have made it mandatory for every returnee to the state to be tested for COVID-19 with the RT-PCR test which is recognised by the World Health Organization and the Indian Council for Medical Research. It was during such a test that we were able to detect the positive case,” informed Commissioner and Secretary for Health P Sampath Kumar.
Though the government has decided to test each and every returnee, irrespective of one being with or without symptoms, yet, the first batch of returnees to the state from South India on Saturday were sent into home quarantine with tests being carried out for only those displaying possible flu-like symptoms. Over a thousand citizens from the state returned from South India, last week.
Clarifying on the issue, Kumar said that quarantine is the one and only method in checking the spread of the disease. “Kerala was a state which recorded the first spike in cases of the disease, but they went in for home quarantine extensively which helped to prevent the virus from mutating into stronger strands,” he said.
With the first positive case of a woman returnee to the Garo Hills, there is apprehension that many who accompanied her on the train journey could have also contracted the virus.
“This is a wrong conception because she could not spread the disease since she did not have any symptoms. Also, everyone who came on the journey were first taken in for pool testing through RT-PCR and kept in institutional quarantine. They were released only after the test results came in negative,” assured Kumar.
