Random testing soon

SHILLONG, JUL 29: East Khasi Hills district administration on Thursday decided to conduct random testing to detect ‘silent carriers’ in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the District Task Force on Covid-19 and Vaccination held at the DC’s office in view of the urgency due to the rising number of Covid cases in the district.

In the meeting, micro analyses of the area-wise distribution of cases, number of deaths and vaccination coverage was done.

As on date, 57% of the cases are from the urban areas while 43% are from the rural areas.

After chairing the meeting, Deputy Commissioner Isawanda Laloo said that most cases in the district are reported from select clusters.

“…hence it was decided that localities or villages with more than 10 cases require special attention and would undergo intensive active surveillance and random testing to detect silent carriers,” she said.

Macro containment zones would be declared in areas showing a worrying trend of cases and deaths in order to carry out effective surveillance and prevent more deaths.

Strict enforcement of locality wise containment and rigorous testing in that area will be carried out.

In view of high transmissibility of the disease, it is required to encourage institutional isolation of positive cases in cases where home isolation is not feasible.

Both Corona Care Centres and Community Corona Care Centres are available in the urban and rural areas.

In cases where the number of family members is high or there is not enough space for home isolation, institutional isolation will be mandatory.

The Chairman requested the headmen body to help encourage institutional isolation.

Persons who display mild symptoms / Category B patients would also be asked to go to the CCC for better monitoring of their health conditions.

The house stressed on the need to ensure timely treatment by early presentation to hospitals after the onset of symptoms.

For this purpose, people should be encouraged to inform if they have symptoms, and not have any fear or misconception about the disease.

Active awareness and steps will be formulated to do away with the stigma attached to the disease especially in rural areas.

The house 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.

All stakeholders including government officials, CSOs, community and faith leaders will be roped in to intensify the vaccination drive.

By Our Reporter