Meghalaya Govt sets to reveal identity of COVID-19 patients, high risk contacts

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 14, 2020

The state government is all set to reveal the identity of all COVID-19 positive patients and their high risk contacts to the traditional village authorities.  

“From now onwards, we are going to communicate the names (of all positive cases) to the local headmen or the COVID-19 village committees to monitor their movement,” Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong told reporters after a daily review meeting held on Tuesday.

The decision also came after growing demand from several quarters especially following the recent incident related to the wedding party at Greenwood Resort, Guwahati.

Tynsong said the government has directed the health department as well as the district administration to start implementing the system of sharing information with the COVID-19 village committees from tomorrow itself.

He informed that the decision was also taken after contact tracing has been completed and 198 have been identified as high risk contacts of positive patients from the wedding party as well as from NEIGRIHMS.

Asked, Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War said that the identity of both positive patients and their high risk contacts would be shared with all the local village authorities.

He said this is to ensure that protocols of the government are strictly followed by patients and those who are supposed to be under home quarantine. “The village authorities will help in monitoring such people besides providing essential commodities,” Dr War said.