SHILLONG: Meghalaya, which was once hailed by one and all for effectively managing and containing the COVID-19 pandemic, is now creating and breaking records as far as new cases are concerned.
On Thursday, the state witnessed its biggest single-day spike in the number of positive cases with 126 people testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
Revealing this, Health and Family Welfare Minister AL Hek said that out of the new cases, 106 were reported in East Khasi Hills alone. West Garo Hills with 12 cases, Ri Bhoi with six cases and East Garo Hills and West Jaintia Hills with one case each, also contributed to the tally of 126 for the day.
The new cases in East Khasi Hills include 41 Armed Forces personnel, 16 from BSF, five staff of Ganesh Das Hospital, one Central health worker from Rilbong and three CRPF men. The bigger concern was detection of several cases during random sampling, including 11 at Khlieh Iewduh, ten at Motphran, 13 at Anjalee, five at Police Bazar and one OPD patient of RP Chest (TB) Hospital.
Among the 12 new cases in West Garo Hills, ten were from BSF while two were detected during random sampling at Tikrikilla.
Ri Bhoi had six cases on Thursday including five returnees and one contact of a positive case.
In West Jaintia Hills, a health worker posted at Jowai corona care centre tested positive while in East Garo Hills a returnee was found positive.
The active tally in the state has shot up to 925.
East Khasi Hills now has 571 cases (BSF-108, Others-346, Armed Forces- 117), West Garo Hills has 219, Ri Bhoi- 101, North Garo Hills- 10, East Jaintia Hills- 8, West Jaintia Hills- 5, South West Garo Hills- 4, West Khasi Hills- 3, South Garo Hills has 2, while South West Khasi Hills and East Garo Hills have one case each.
The number of recoveries in the state is 730.
14 cases in WKH
Fear of community spread gripped West Khasi Hills after 14 persons tested positive at Shallang on Thursday, prompting the authorities to declare the town market area as a containment zone.
Authorities informed that the new cases are contacts of two persons — a tea stall owner at Riangdo market who is a resident of Banglapluh and a tourist taxi driver who is a resident of 12Kilo under Shallang — who were tested positive through random sampling at Riangdo market on Wednesday.
Further contact tracing is being done even as officials have requested people who have come in contact with them to register themselves or call the helpline number or 108.
The 14 people who tested positive have been kept at RCLP School, Shallang under quarantine.
