SHILLONG, July 29: With Meghalaya, particularly East Khasi Hills, reporting a spike in COVID-19 cases, the District Task Force on COVID-19 & Vaccination has decided to revisit its strategy and go for intensive surveillance and random testing to detect silent carriers in localities or villages registering more than ten active cases on a day.
The decision was taken at an emergency meeting convened by Deputy Commissioner Isawanda Laloo where micro analyses of the area-wise distribution of cases, number of deaths and vaccination coverage was done.
As on Thursday, 57% of the active cases in East Khasi Hills are in the urban areas while the rest have been reported in rural pockets. As most cases in urban areas are emerging from select clusters, it was decided that localities or villages with more than ten cases require special attention in the form of intensive active surveillance and random testing to detect silent carriers.
As per the revised strategy, macro containment zones would be declared in areas showing higher trend of positive cases and deaths in order to carry out effective surveillance and prevent more deaths.
Strict enforcement of locality wise containment and rigorous testing in those areas would be carried out.
In view of the high transmissibility of the disease, it was decided to encourage institutional isolation of positive cases in cases where home isolation is not feasible. Corona care centres and community centres have been made available in the urban and rural areas.
Institutional isolation would be mandatory if the number of family members is large.
The DC has requested the headmen to help encourage institutional isolation among such cases.
Persons who display mild symptoms (Category B) would also be asked to go to the CCC for better monitoring of their health conditions. People would be encouraged to inform authorities if they have symptoms and not have any fear or misconception about the disease.
It was also decided that active awareness campaigns and necessary steps will be formulated to do away with the stigma attached to the disease, especially in rural areas.
The task force emphasized on urgent vaccination as the only way to stop the cycle of infection and pave the way to normalcy, especially for livelihoods and education, which have been badly affected.
Stakeholders including government officials, CSOs, community and faith leaders would be roped in to intensify the vaccination drive.
731 new cases in state, 14 deaths
The COVID-19 graph and fatality rate continues to rise in Meghalaya with as many as 731 fresh cases and 14 fatalities reported on Thursday.
The death toll has climbed to 1062 while the active tally stands at 5,750. The total number of confirmed cases in the state is 63,745 out of which 56,933 have been declared cured/recovered.
