SHILLONG: The armed forces personnel, who are to come after leave, have been asked to stay back.
This was decided during a recent meeting between the government and the armed forces.
The matter was disclosed by the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma during a joint meeting between the government and the Opposition held on Thursday in the city chaired by the Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh.
Security personnel, mostly the BSF were infected with COVID-19 after they came back to the state after completing leave.
Another decision is that those armed personnel in transit are to follow state protocol henceforth.
During the meeting, it was also informed that as on July15, out of 297 active cases, 222 (75%) were that of BSF and armed forces.
The situation was under control till June 30 when the active cases stood at 8.
The state government said that the spurt from July can be largely attributed to the rise in cases related to BSF, cases in NEIGRIHMS and the Greenwood Resort wedding party.
As many as 259 tests were conducted for the contacts relating to the wedding cluster, 60 for the NEIGRIHMS and 110 for the Khanapara cluster.
1,567 tests were conducted in the BSF cluster of which 223 have turned to be positive.
Availability of beds, equipment
The state has 3847 beds and adequate stock of health equipment is available across the state — PPE (2,56,379), 3 ply masks (6,80,000), N95 masks (2,41,086) and ventilators (20) among others.
As many as 26,028 free provision kits were distributed till date for all individuals under mandatory home quarantine. A total of Rs 63.6 lakh has been released as expenditure to the community quarantine centres at the rate of Rs 5000 per centre.
Instruction to increase the incentive to Rs 10,000 from the existing Rs 5,000 has been made by the government on July 15.
Testing capacity
In the meeting, the increase in testing capacity was elaborated and from 4 tests a day in March, the capacity has increased to 390 tests per day. Testing infrastructure is now available in 9 districts out of 11 districts of the state. The state has a testing capacity of more than 1000 tests per day. It is expected to touch about 1,300 tests by the end of July.
Public Distribution System
In terms of Public Distribution System, the PMGKAY has been extended from July to November.
Under Atma Nirbhar Bharat package, distribution of food grains has been extended till August 31.
Many additional steps were undertaken for supporting various categories of citizens, the government said.
Monetary assistance is being provided to stranded people, organised building and construction workers, unorganised workers and to farmers under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi and women bank account holders under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana.
MSMEs
Under expanding credit to MSMEs/ business houses, a top-up loan of 20% of the outstanding amount is being provided by banks to existing borrowers.
There are 7,947 beneficiaries eligible under the scheme from SBI account holders of which the total eligible amount is Rs 204.91 crore. Rs 88.10 crore has been sanctioned for the 2198 beneficiaries.
