SHILLONG, AUG 14: Thirty-five more persons including 23 Border Security Force (BSF) troopers, tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, taking the tally of active cases in the state to 641.
Director of Health Services (MI), Dr Aman War said 20 new cases were detected from West Garo Hills district that include 16 BSF troopers and four civilians – 3 from random testing at the Phulbari Community Health Centre and 1 is a worker at the corona care centre.
He said 14 cases from East Khasi Hills district include 7 BSF troopers and seven civilians of which one returnee from Haryana, a staff nurse of Civil Hospital, Shillong, 3 high risk contacts from North East Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS), 1 is a contact with no travel history and 1 SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) case while the case detected in South West Garo Hills is a returnee from Assam.
Dr War said two of the three high risk contacts of NEIGRIHMS are from Mawlai Nongkwar while the other is from Upper Shillong.
He further informed that the positive case with no travel history is from Rilbong and contact tracing is being done to find out exactly from where he had contracted the virus.
“As of now, we do not know from where he had contracted the infection but his job and wife’s job is that they go everywhere and that they also got a tea shop at Rilbong,” he said while adding that the wife of the patient had also tested positive earlier.
Asked, Dr War admitted that it will be a great concern for the health department in case a day will come that the source of the infection could not be traced.
“Therefore, we are monitoring all these cases and if necessary, we will have to take a call later,” he said.
On the sudden surge of COVID-19 cases in West Garo Hills, the Director said that these BSF troopers are those coming from Assam. “However, if you see the recovery rate including from the BSF troopers, it is more than 581. This shows that the disease is not that virulent here and moreover we do not have many severe cases, which is a sign of hope that the state will win the battle against this pandemic,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr War also informed that as many as 34 patients have recovered from the viral infection taking the total recoveries in the state to 581. The new recovered cases include 22 civilians, 8 BSF and 1 Armed Force from East Khasi Hills, 2 BSF from West Garo Hills and 1 from East Jaintia Hills.
With 419 cases (263 civilians, 85 BSF and 71 Armed Forces personnel from the Army and Assam Rifles), East Khasi Hills is the most affected district in the state followed by West Garo Hills with 102 cases and Ri Bhoi with 83 cases.
There are 16 cases in West Jaintia Hills, 6 in North Garo Hills, 5 in East Jaintia Hills, 3 each in South West Garo Hills, South Garo Hills, and West Khasi Hills and 1 in South West Khasi Hills.
As of Friday, a total of 42, 910 samples have been sent for testing, of which 41,425 were found to be negative while test results of 257 are awaited. There are 27,767 entrants from outside the state till today.
Meanwhile, the state has recorded 1,228 positive COVID-19 cases that include 641 active and six deaths so far from the viral infection.
By Our Reporter
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