SHILLONG, Feb 1: Health Minister, James PK Sangma on Tuesday said the COVID-19 situation in the state is under control in terms of the rate of hospitalization of people.
“Majority of the fresh COVID-19 cases are of the Omicron variant. We witnessed that the spread of the new variant is rapid but the symptoms are not of a serious nature compared to what we had seen in the Delta variant,” Sangma told reporters.
He, however, cautioned that it can affect different people differently depending on comorbidity.
“We are extremely vigilant. We want to reach out to people to tell them that they must take the present situation seriously,” the Health Minister said.
He said it will be very difficult to say when COVID is going to hit a peak, plateau or show a dip.
“As of now, the number of cases coming up seems to be steady. We hope the cases will come down in the coming days,” Sangma said.
He said the number of COVID-related deaths caused by the new variant is on the lower side compared to the delta variant. “The loss of a single life is precious for us. We don’t want more COVID deaths. We are keeping a close watch,” Sangma said.
He said some people still have vaccine hesitancy. He said the government is constantly trying to convince people to get jabbed.
“This challenge of vaccination hesitancy is not just in our state but a common factor in the whole country,” he added.
The state on Tuesday recorded 293 fresh cases of COVID-19 while three more patients succumbed to the viral infection in the past 24 hours taking the death toll to 1,529. Two deaths were reported in East Khasi Hills and another from West Jaintia Hills.
The active tally stands at 2,232 while 87,626 people have recovered from the viral infection including 371 on the day.
Sangma pointed out that the state government has taken steps to frame its own mental health policy.
Reacting to the Budget announcement of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that the Centre will launch a National Tele Mental Health Programme, he said it is a great initiative on the part of the Centre since mental health is a very important issue.
“A lot of people are facing mental health issues because of the isolation and lack of social interaction and social support system in the wake of the pandemic. This programme will really help in easing such issues because you cannot really solve them,” the Health Minister said.
He said that people can reach out to counsellors if case of need with the help of the programme to be launched by the Centre.
Sitharaman in her Budget speech on Tuesday said, “The pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages. To better the access to quality mental health counselling and care services, a National Tele Mental Health programme will be launched. The programme will include a network of 23 tele mental health centres of excellence.”
“The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) will be the nodal centre, and the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore will provide technological support for the mental health programme,” she said.
