SHILLONG: When COVID pandemic broke out, Meghalaya’s bulk of the cases related to BSF personnel who at one stage accounted for nearly 90% of the infections in the state. Five months down the line, the scene has changed dramatically.
Thanks to some hard measures and dedicated application of SOPs, the BSF Meghalaya Frontier has been able to turn the corners like it happened in the Dharavi slum of Mumbai.
Over the last several months the BSF men have suffered the most in Meghalaya owing to the pandemic as hundreds of their personnel got infected with COVID-19 but after months of struggle, the situation in the force finally seems to be under control.
Ever since the pandemic made inroads in Meghalaya, more than 500 BSF personnel were infected which even led to the BSF Umpling camp being declared as a containment zone.
However, now the majority of them have recovered and even the containment tag has been lifted from the camp.
Dr AC Bhardwajan, DIG(Med) of BSF Composite Hospital, Shillong told The Shillong Times that the COVID-19 situation is completely under control in the force. As on Saturday, 423 personnel had recovered and the active cases in the force had plummeted to 103.
He however sounded a note of caution that no one can control the infection at the moment while adding that people who come back to the state frequently get infected on the way.
“This is not a disease which people can claim of controlling and till now we have not been able to control other viruses like Polio and HIV,” he said.
The BSF at the moment has not debarred its personnel to come back to the state from outside as many personnel who were stationed here but were on leave would ultimately have to return back to the state.
Though cases have declined in BSF, Dr Bhardwajan informed that all measures are being taken to ensure no contact transmission within the campus.
“Though we cannot stop returnees from coming back but we are trying to ensure that no contact spread takes place in the campus,” he added.