314 COVID’s case in East Khasi Hills alone as Meghalaya reports 15 new cases

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 18, 2020

In a sudden spike of COVID-19’s case in the State of Meghalaya, the total numbers of active cases in East Khasi Hills District now rose to 314 as 15 more people have been tested positive on Saturday.

The total number of COVID-19 active cases in the state has climbed to 367, even as health authorities admitted the need to further increase the testing capacity.

The fresh cases include 7 in East Khasi Hills (4 BSF troopers, 3 returnees – 2 from Assam and 1 from Bihar), 4 in Ri Bhoi (3 are high risk contacts of 3 health workers and 1 is an attendant of a patient from the Orthopedic ward of NEIGRIHMS) and 3 in West Garo Hills (1 BSF and 2 returnees).

“The total number of active cases in the state has now increased to 367,” Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War told reporters.

Giving the breakup of cases district wise, Dr War informed that East Khasi Hills has 314 which include 240 BSF personnel, 14 from armed forces and 60 others.

There are 35 active cases in Ri Bhoi, 11 in West Garo Hills, 2 in East Jaintia Hills, 2 in South Garo Hills, 1 in East Garo Hills and 1 in North Garo Hills.

The state has so far registered 418 COVID-19 cases that include two deaths and 49 recovered from the viral infection.

Dr War informed out of the 26,940 swab samples sent for testing till date, 26,000 have come out negative while results of 522 were awaited.

“There are 22,504 entrants to the state from outside till date,” he added.

According to the DHS, there are two critical cases which include 1 BSF jawan and 1 from the Geological Survey of India. “One is improving and the other is still kept in the ventilator,” he said.

The present testing capacity in the state is 800 per day. The North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health & Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) is the largest testing centre with a capacity of 600 per day while Pasteur Institute, Shillong is with 90 and Tura testing centre with 100.

Asked, Dr War admitted that there is huge backlog and delay in giving test results as some even have to wait up to eight days. He said this is because you have many samples from returnees as well as the high risk contacts of positive patients.

“Therefore in order to reduce this backlog, we have decided to send samples from East Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills to NEIGRIHMS while those coming from West Khasi Hills and Ri Bhoi will be tested at Pasteur Insitute,” he said.

Dr War however said there is need for more RT-PCR laboratories in the state. “The more we can test, the more comfortable it will be for us,” he said while adding that the government’s decision to temporarily close down all entry points to the state will help ease the problem.