SHILLONG: The DHS (MI), Dr Aman War, on Friday said that contact tracing in containment areas was still not over.
Speaking to media persons, War said that the department has already decided to make the containment areas smaller so that it does not cause hardship to other citizens.
“Our teams are going to these containment areas and we are doing the demarcation,” he said while adding that they are also doing specific contact tracing now.
He, however, said that if a large number of positive cases are reported from an area, the entire area would have to be declared a containment zone.
As of now, the department has traced more than 1100 people and the process is on in several areas.
He said that there are challenges in contact tracing in places like Mawbah as the population is huge as is the area and the department has to search for the contacts.
It may be mentioned that the department has also started random testing in 71 clusters of the state most of which are in East Khasi Hills (22) while West Garo Hills has 11.
Bethany doc positive
Meanwhile, twenty people including a doctor from Bethany Hospital in the city tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. DHS (MI) Dr Aman War informed that all but one of the 20 cases were reported in East Khasi Hills (Armed Force-12, BSF-1 and others-6) while one case was reported from South Garo Hills.
Giving details of the new cases, Dr War said apart from the doctor, two patients of Bethany Hospital suffering from severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) also tested positive. In addition, a staff of the RP Chest Hospital tested positive on Friday while another person was tested positive in NEIGRIHMS. A high risk contact of a person, who returned to the state on July 23, also tested positive in the district.
Dr War also allayed fears about a second instance of containment at Bethany Hospital, saying that the doctor and the two patients, who tested positive on Friday, were already in the isolation ward and hence there is no fear of containment.
The doctor’s family has been advised home quarantine, the DHS added.
With this, the number of active cases in the state has increased to 603.
The total number of recoveries in the state has also increased to 215 with five more patients discharged on Friday.
As many as 36,859 samples have been sent for testing out of which 35,569 tested negative while results of 467 samples were awaited.
