Improving district health infra: CM

SHILLONG, May 4: Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday said the state government has undertaken measures to improve the health infrastructure in the district headquarters. He claimed a lot of work has already taken place in Shillong and Tura. “The last 12 months have seen improvement in the health infrastructure to a large extent. This is being done more aggressively in the past two months,” he said, reacting to questions raised by the opposition Congress on the state’s COVID-19 preparedness and the quality of health infrastructure in the districts. The Chief Minister said the country is facing an unprecedented situation and any number of beds will not suffice if the cases keep on increasing at an alarming rate. He said the government had decided to impose stiff restrictions 10 days ago because of the disturbing trend. “We felt the time was right to control things since the number of infections was below 1,000. But if we touch 15,000-16,000, it will be an extremely difficult situation,” Sangma said. He said the government took a tough decision to not let economic activities suffer by enforcing total lockdown. “We are revamping the infrastructure in the state capital and the district headquarters as much as possible. Society must ensure people take precautions so that the number of cases is within control for the hospitals and health officials to provide services,” he said. On Monday, senior Congress leader Ampareen Lyngdoh had drawn the government’s attention to the lack of preparedness of the district hospitals in treating returnees of residents infected with the virus. She said a majority of the critical COVID-19 patients from various districts have been admitted to the hospitals in the state capital. “Out of 200 critical patients from the districts, 175 are undergoing treatment in Shillong. If the government does not strengthen the health infrastructure in the districts, we might see an explosion of COVID-19 cases in the city,” she said.