SHILLONG: Even as the COVID-19 cases continue to spike in the state, Opposition Chief Whip, PT Sawkmie has forewarned the state government against promulgating another lockdown in the state.
Speaking to newsmen here on Monday, the Congress MLA, Sawkmie said that the state had seen enough of lockdowns and the government should rather look into the idea of micro containment areas in case of a surge in the state.
He said that the government must think about the livelihood of the people and even now when different activities had not resumed fully, another lockdown in the state would have an adverse effect on the livelihood of the people.
Conceding that the COVID-19 situation in the state is a matter of concern, Sawkmie however attributed the rising number of cases to the belated ramping up of the testing capabilities of the state and more number of tests being carried out.
Rilbong put under micro-containment
As many as 38 people from a particular colony in Rilbong locality tested positive for COVID-19 forcing the East Khasi Hills District Administration to declare three places as containment areas.
DHS (MI) Dr Aman War said on Monday that all these people were tested positive in a random testing carried out in the area on Sunday and their tests have been confirmed by RT-PCR as well.
When asked what could be the possible source of such large-scale infection, Dr War said that contact tracing was being done and the department would be able to tell in a couple of days if they got infected from a specific source or not.
Recalling that there were two positive cases in Rilbong initially, he said that there is all likelihood that the new cases are the high risk contacts of the initial cases as they visited shops and even those initially tested persons had visited market places.
“As most of the people tested now are working in Bara Bazar and Police Bazar, we have put up testing centres there,” Dr War said while informing that the places in the locality which have been declared as containment areas are the Nepali Compound from the house of Roma Devkota, Mira Store upto the house of Sushma Talukdar and further down upto Umjasai stream.
In addition, the shops that are located in the building of BM Kurbah and Mantra Building opposite Rilbong Puja Mandap have also been declared as containment areas.
Suspecting that there was a community spread in the particular colony where 38 cases have cropped up, Dr War said all the 38 people had been shifted to corona care centres.
When asked if the situation indicates community spread, Dr War said that in Rilbong, the spread is within a colony and hence the colony has been contained but the roads and thorough fare in Rilbong and Bishnupur have not been closed now.
“If we get a positive case from areas other than this colony without any travel or contact history, then we will have to take a call on how to contain the whole area,” he said.
Admitting that it would be a massive contact tracing as many of them are daily wage earners, he said that the department has planned out random testing in those areas where they are working.
Earlier, he also said that if the state gets a lot of positive cases, maximum positive patients who are asymptomatic would have to be taken care at home.