Police battalion near Tura turned into Containment zone

The sprawling campus at Goeragre, 12 kms from Tura, is home to several hundred personnel including their families and houses a bank, a hospital, a gas agency and also a school.

The cases began to spike after directions were given to the personnel to undergo tests after one personnel attached to the commandant’s office tested positive. The family members of the orderly attached to the commandant’s office were also tested positive for the virus.

“As soon as we received the positive report of the office attendant I directed the personnel to head to the ISBT testing centre for a screening. So far we have found 17 positive cases,” informed battalion commandant A S Rynjah while speaking to The Shillong Times.

The commandant was found negative during tests but has shifted into quarantine until a second test is conducted, in five days time.

A lady doctor attached to the battalion hospital has also been made to go into quarantine after she came in close contact with one of the primary contacts.

With the spike taking place district authorities quickly moved in and declared the entire campus in Goeragre a containment zone restricting entry and exit. A team of the state health department from Asanang primary health centre is due to begin contact tracing from Wednesday morning.

“We tried our best to prevent the infection. It was made mandatory for all office premises to be sanitized three times a day and strict rules were in place for coming in or leaving the campus with all permissions mandatory to be cleared by me,” revealed commandant Rynjah.

Williamnagar SP office positive case: Barely hours after lifting of the micro containment zone that included the Williamnagar SP office a police constable has been tested positive on Tuesday. The havildar attached to the office of the district SP was among the five new cases of Covid 19 in the district.

With normalcy returning to most parts of Garo Hills with shops and educational institutions opening up and travel restrictions being relieved cases continue to rise across the region.