SHILLONG: The state on Friday witnessed its biggest single-day spike in COVID cases notching 52 and taking the number of active cases to 495, including 419 in East Khasi Hills.
Health and Family Welfare Minister AL Hek said that out of the 52 cases, 47 were detected in East Khasi Hills (BSF-9, Armed Forces 7 and others 31).
Three cases were detected in West Jaintia Hills while two were detected in East Jaintia Hills.
Among the 419 active cases in East Khasi Hills, BSF accounts for 287, Armed Forces 21 and others 111.
Ri Bhoi district has 41 cases, whereas East Jaintia Hills has four and West Jaintia Hills eight.
There are 15 cases in West Garo Hills, four in South West Garo Hills, two in South Garo Hills, and one each in North Garo Hills and East Garo Hills.
Giving details of the 31individuals who tested positive on Friday, Director of Health Services (MI), Dr Aman War informed that six of them are admitted at private hospitals, include two at Bethany Hospital and four at H. Gordon Roberts Hospital, five at NEIGRIHMS, including a doctor from Orthopaedics department, a patient’s attendant, daughter of the 67-year- old woman who passed away on Thursday, a staff and a patient who was admitted in the hospital on Wednesday; two are patients who had gone for check-up at District Tuberculosis Centre Jhalupara, three contacts of the positive case from Greenwood wedding ceremony, one high-risk contact of the positive cases at Lumpyngngad and two doctors at Civil Hospital and Nazareth Hospital while others are returnees.
Asked if it was true that there are more than 800 high and low-risk contacts of the doctor from Shillong Civil Hospital, who has tested positive, he said that they are still doing the contact tracing since there are many people who met the doctor at the operation theatre.
“We had identified 320 people — both high and low-risk — and all tested negative. We are still doing the contact tracing,” he said.
Meanwhile, 32,401 samples have been sent for tests out of which 31,085 have tested negative.
Results of 750 samples are awaited while 87 people have recovered.