SHILLONG, April 26: In a candid disclosure, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Monday admitted that the measures adopted by the state government in the fight against the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic were not full proof and grimly projected the number of cases to hit the 5,000-mark soon if the present trend across the country is taken into account.
“We have made this projection after seeing the trends in other parts of the country. We had immediately imposed restrictions since we were anticipating this trend in the first meeting itself,” Sangma told reporters here.
Admitting that the system put in place by the state government to deal with the galloping number of COVID cases was not 100 per cent effective, he asserted that the government would do everything possible to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control.
Speaking about the government strategy to deal with the growing number of COVID patients in the state, Sangma said the emphasis was on arranging quarantine facilities for those patients who do not have enough space to isolate themselves and added that the government was looking at three options to address the issue.
The first option is that the government would provide space in the corona care centres and the family members would have to manage the food while the second option is that people could opt for paid quarantine centres, if finance was not an issue, he said.
Speaking about the third option, Sangma said, “The DCs will talk to the COVID management committees at the village level to explore the possibility of setting up community quarantine centres. The government will help in whatever way it can to set up such centres.”
The chief minister also made it clear that apart from quarantine, the government was also preparing to get additional supply of vaccine.
“We had written to these pharmaceutical companies for procurement of the vaccine but they are yet to response,” he said, while adding that the pharmaceutical companies were focusing on those states which are severely affected at the moment.
Admitting that the vaccination of people in the 18-44 age group could progress only if the state had enough supply of vaccines, the chief minister said, “We will not be able to intensify the vaccination drive until we receive the doses.”
He also said that vaccinating around 13 lakh people between the age of 18 and 44 years would be a massive and challenging exercise.
Earlier in the day, the chief minister inspected an oxygen manufacturing unit at the Byrnihat industrial zone in Ri Bhoi.
“The COVID situation across the country is very worrying and we are fortunate to have an oxygen manufacturing unit in our state. My visit was to ensure that if a need arises we would be able to provide uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen. We are coordinating with officials of the company and have assured them of all logistical support from our end,” he said after the inspection.
