Meghalaya sees sudden jump in COVID-19 cases

 Of these, three are Border Security Force (BSF) jawans from East Khasi Hills district and five are residents of Khanapara and 13^th Mile in Ri Bhoi district, Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War told reporters.

With the new COVID-19 cases, the number of infected (active cases) in the state went up to 26, he said.

It may be mentioned the state had only 4 active cases till June 24. “There is a jump of 22 cases within eight days,” he said.

Out of 26 positive cases, 11 are in East Khasi Hills (10 males and one female), 10 in Ri Bhoi (6 males and 4 females), 2 in South West Garo Hills, 2 in West Garo Hills and 1 in East Jaintia Hills.

Dr War also informed that four of the five cases in Ri Bhoi are from 13^th Mile area and they have no relation with the Khanapara cases.

“What happens was that on July 2, there were two persons (from 13^th Mile), one who due to some ailments had gone to Guwahati for treatment and the hospital there took his samples and sent him back home but as his result came out positive, he was later picked up by officials from Assam, who placed him under isolation in Guwahati, while the other one who is working in a call centre in Guwahati had gone for testing and was also found to be positive for coronavirus. Assam had informed us at that point of time to take note of these positive cases, which were taken to Assam,” he said.

“Based on this, the district health authority in Ri Bhoi had gone for contact tracing of these two positive cases. Samples were taken (from high risk contacts) and sent to NEIGRIHMS, of which four were found to be positive,” he said.

The DHS said that the fifth case in Ri Bhoi is a high risk contact of the index case found in Khanapara B. “Contact tracing of this particular case is being taken up,” he said.

Asked, Dr War said that three BSF personnel who have been tested positive for COVID-19 at the BSF hospital in the city were from Lyngkhat village along the Indo-Bangla border. “They are already undergoing quarantine,” he said.

The DHS further informed that a total of 20,570 samples were sent for testing of which 20,251 were found to be negative while test results of 250 are awaited.

Meanwhile, a total of 19,880 people have returned to the state from different parts of the country.

By Our Reporter