SHILLONG: In the face of rising number of new cases in the state, a pertinent question to ask: Is the official machinery geared up to meet the pressure on the system?
The figures made available on Tuesday suggest that though in terms of sample testing and beds availability, the situation is comfortable, at least for now, it will be different ball game when the corona virus reaches its peak predictably next month.
While the testing facilities in the state have been ramped up recently, the availability of beds may require more attention as more than half of the beds in the Corona Care Centres of the state are already occupied.
As on Tuesday, the total bed capacity in the Corona Care Centre stood at 800 out of which 437 beds had been occupied and 363 beds were available.
Sample testing has been sluggish with 1.16 lakh rests conducted in the past five months. This works out to about 3.3% of the state population. The health officials will have to buck up on this front. Besides, the low rate, complaints about delay in dissemination of reports remains a worry.
A top official of the Meghalaya Government informed that the total installed capacity of the state is about 1500 tests per day being conducted at Pasteur Institute, NEIGRIHMS, Nazareth and Tura Civil Hospital.
The government also has testing facilities in nine districts as of now and by the end of the week, all the eleven districts are likely to have their own testing facilities.
The dashboard of the Meghalaya Government said that till now, a total of 1,16,764 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in the state including 59,377 RT-PCR tests, 1889 CBNAAT tests, 2991 TrueNat and 52,507 Antigen test.
In East Khasi Hills which is the most affected district in the state, so far, 59,405 tests had been conducted including 37,204 RT-PCR test, 1490 CBNAAT, 978 TrueNat and 19,733 antigen tests. West Garo Hills recorded 18,761 tests; Ri Bhoi district had 10,751; South West Khasi Hills: 1258 tests.
It is said that the NEIGRIHMS on an average day conducts 300-400 RTPCR tests even as officials admitted that the load on the institute has reduced significantly after the state government jacked up its testing facilities.
Health Minister, AL Hek agreed that as the cases were increasing in the state, it is high time that the government ramps up the testing facilities further in the state. Government was also exploring to open more Corona Care Centres and Isolation Centres, he added.
The bed capacity of Shillong Civil Hospital is 52 out of which only six beds were currently occupied leaving 46 beds available, whereas in Tura Civil Hosptal, 14 out of 33 beds had been occupied and 19 beds are available.
IIM Umsawli has 240 bed capacity of which 172 beds were occupied and 68 beds were available whereas in MATI Shillong, 71 beds out of 89 beds were occupied.
The NIFT Corona Care Centre had 94 beds occupied out of the 143 beds whereas in MIIT Shillong, 29 beds out of 43 available beds were occupied.
None of the beds out of 124 beds Diocesan pastoral centre, Walbakre were occupied.
The total bed capacity in the Hospitals throughout the state was 4776 out of which 4175 beds were available, adding the occupancy rate of the bed was 12.58 per cent. Besides, 2000 quarantine beds were also available.
Amidst the pandemic, the state also had to facilitate the movement of returnees to the state as till the filing of this report, 36,643 returnees were back to the state since April. A majority of these returnees have returned to East Khasi Hills with numbers counting to 17423 while 6913 returnees have returned to West Garo Hills.
In Ri Bhoi district, as of now, 3601 persons had returned while in North Garo Hills 1586 persons had returned back to the state.