SHILLONG: The state was poised to touch the 300-mark in COVID-19 active cases with 28 more detected with the virus on Wednesday, including one found during the random testing that began in the city on the day.
The number of active cases in the state now stands at 297.
Speaking to newsmen here on Wednesday, Health and Family Welfare Minister AL Hek said that 19 cases detected on Wednesday were from East Khasi Hills — all from BSF.
The other nine cases are from the defence forces — six from the army in East Khasi Hills, including a woman, and three from Umroi cantonment in Ri Bhoi.
Out of the 297 active cases, 261 are in East Khasi Hills. Ri Bhoi has 22 cases whereas the number for West Garo Hills dropped to eight with the recovery of a BSF personnel in Tura on Wednesday.
East Jaintia Hills and South Garo Hills have two cases each followed by East Garo Hills and North Garo Hills which have one case each.
Random testing
Besides throwing up a positive case — a BSF personnel’s wife — the random testing in localities in the vicinity of the BSF camp at Umpling on Wednesday also found four others described as ‘trace positive’ (suspected case).
The cases were detected during the testing at Hubert Memorial School in Umpling where 547 samples were taken.
‘Trace positive’ means the line was not thick enough, which could be due to less antigens, and hence their samples were sent for RT-PCR tests.
District Medical and Health Officer, Dr MR Basaiawmoit said that as four persons were `trace positive’, as per the protocol, their samples along with those of their family members were sent for RT-PCR test and the results were awaited.
The random testing started at 11.30 am and a large number of men and women came over to the school for their antigen tests.
The results of the antigen tests are declared within 15 minutes.
At the entry of the school, everyone was asked to sanitise their hands while volunteers of the Dorbar Shnong helped them with the procedure.
The entire test process took a maximum of two minutes and the results declared within 15 minutes.
Basaiawmoit said that random testing would be conducted in Nongmensong on Thursday to be followed by Mawpat and Langkyrding-Mihngi and now as there are demands for similar testing in Nongthymmai.
Marius Kharkongor, Rangbah Dong was happy with random testing conducted in their locality.
He said that as the BSF campus was very close to the locality and many personnel and their families were staying with civilians the risk of infection was very high in their area.
“It was very important to conduct tests in the locality,” he said.
Mawryngkneng MLA, David Nongrum, who was also present in the school, said that the most-affected area in the state right now is Shillong and hence the government should go for random testing in all other areas of the city.
He also said that BSF has a huge campus and the locality also has a large number of personnel staying there as tenants and hence the testing was the need of the hour.
