Fresh COVID-19 case reported, Meghalaya to increase quarantine period

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 9, 2020

Another fresh case of coronavirus was reported in the state on Saturday, taking the total number of active patients to 2.  

Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters that the latest case happens to be from the same source, which is the house of the first COVID-19 victim, (L) Dr John L Sailo Ryntathiang, who died on April 15.

He said the new patient is a maid servant and is one among the 181 primary or high risk contacts of the deceased victim.

“She was tested positive after retest was conducted on her for the third time, report of which was received today afternoon,” Tynsong informed.

According to deputy CM, the maid servant after completing 14 days home-quarantine was tested negative on April 16.

“She has now been transferred to the corona care centre at the Shillong civil hospital and her condition is stable,” he said while informing that the maid servant has no primary contact since she has not came out of the house even after completing the quarantine period.

Tynsong said the state now has two active cases after 10 of 13 patients infected by the contagious disease, have fully recovered.

On the other hand, he informed that the 42-year-old woman, a family friend of the index patient, who was retested positive for the fourth successive time, retest will again be done on May 11.

Asked, the deputy chief minister said that the government is leaving no stone unturned to ensure all high risk contacts are closely monitored and duly tested to prevent further spread of the virus. He however said no retest will be conducted on the recovered patients.

There are however 3,147 secondary contacts.

Meanwhile, Tynsong informed that a total number of samples tested so far stands at 2,287 out of which 2,178 were negative while results of 96 tests are awaited.

On whether the government is considering increasing the quarantine period, the deputy CM said the government has already requested people who are identified as high risk contact to go for 28 days home quarantine.

“The more we extend the period of quarantine, the safer. That is why we have already started doing that. Even for those people stranded outside the NE states, as quite number of states in India are being declared either red or orange zone, so we would like to see that when they come back they need to quarantine for 28 days as that is the safest for all of us,” he added.

According to a separate statement, 24,382 people have been screened while 7,020 people are under home quarantine and 116 are in institutional quarantine.

As many as 49,391 phone calls have been received through helpline and 22,303 persons have been contacted through IVRS.

On the health infrastructure, it was informed that there are 1,46,686 PPE, 6,30,000 3-ply masks and 1,38,726 N95 masks.

Family of (L) Dr Sailo clarifies:
Reacting to media reports on the latest positive case, the son of (L) Dr John L Sailo Ryntathiang in a statement issued here said that the case is not from the same house of (L) Dr Sailo.

“There was no contact between the latest case and any of the members of (L) Dr.J.L.Sailo Ryntathiang  family  since 15th April, 2020.Therefore, the contacts whom she has been exposed to from 15th April onwards cannot be accounted for,” he stated.