Positivity rate to determine lockdown extension in EKH

SHILLONG, June 10: A positivity rate of more than 10%, especially in Shillong, has fuelled speculations that the lockdown could be extended beyond June 14.
The overall positivity rate in Meghalaya has come down from 12.84% to 11.82% in the last seven days. Of 27,000 people tested during this period, 3,192 were found to be positive.
West Jaintia Hills district has the highest positivity rate of 25.11% followed by East Khasi Hills with 16.27%.
The positivity rate in the last seven days stands at 11.93% in South West Garo Hills and 11.39% in East Garo Hills.
Ri Bhoi (9.39%), South West Khasi Hills (9.04%), South Garo Hills (8.88%), West Garo Hills (8.44%), West Khasi Hills (7.4%) and North Garo Hills (7.17%) have positivity rates of less than 10%.
On Thursday, after a gap of 13 days, fresh COVID-19 cases surpassed the number of recoveries in the state. The day saw 603 new cases against 427 recoveries.
Principal Secretary for Health and Family Welfare, Sampath Kumar said the containment measures can be relaxed only if the positivity rate falls below 10%.
He said the ideal situation would be a positivity rate of less than 5%, indicating the lockdown could be extended if the COVID-19 situation does not improve markedly.
Kumar said Meghalaya is not yet out of danger.
“The state now has the Delta variant, which is very infectious. The positivity rate has been on the higher side for the last 10-14 days with Shillong clocking 17%,” he said, adding that the Health Department would go by an incubation period of 10-15 days.
“We have been saying time and again that we need to enhance our containment measures because the cases are seen within the family. We need to ensure that even at home we are careful,” Kumar said.
The official also said the number of cases increased slightly as 5,000 tests were conducted on Thursday compared to 3,000 on Wednesday.
“We are testing more to detect more for isolation. If we do not test, the asymptomatic cases will keep infecting others and all of a sudden you will find a large number of people infected,” he said.
Officials have scaled up strict checking in different parts of the cities and the eateries that were open for online delivery services.