Meghalaya records biggest one-day spike of 906 new COVID-19 cases, 19 deaths

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 18, 2021

With 906 new COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday, the state registered the highest single-day spike in infections since the beginning of the pandemic. This has pushed the number of active cases to 5,332.

Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War said 574 new cases are from East Khasi Hills alone as the spread is very fast.

64 cases were also detected in East Jaintia Hills, 56 West Garo Hills, 54 West Jaintia Hills, 41 South West Garo Hills, 31 West Khasi Hills, 28 Ri Bhoi, 20 South Garo Hills, 19 North Garo Hills, 10 South West Khasi Hills and 9 East Garo Hills.

Nineteen more persons have succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll to 355.

Of these, 17 are from East Khasi Hills district, 1 North Garo Hills district and 1 Ri Bhoi district, Dr War said.

He also informed that of 470 patients who recovered from the viral infection, 281 are from East Khasi Hills, 9 East Garo Hills, 32 East Jaintia Hills, 8 North Garo Hills, 35 Ri Bhoi, 27 South Garo Hills, 26 South West Garo Hills, 19 West Garo Hills, 17 West Jaintia Hills and 14 West Khasi Hills.

Asked, Dr War said the partial movement of peole has caused the rise in the number of positive cases.

“Moreover we are ramping up the testing that is why we are getting so many positive cases,” he added.

So far, the state has detected a total of 24,872 COVID-19 cases out of which 5,332 are active cases, 19,185 recovered and 355 deaths.

With 3,076 active COVID-19 cases, East Khasi Hills, that includes state capital Shillong, is the worst affected district in the state, followed by Ri Bhoi with 674 cases.

There are 442 cases in West Garo Hills, 360 West Jaintia Hills, 198 South West Garo Hills, 212 East Jaintia Hills, 168 West Khasi Hills, 70 North Garo Hills, 59 South Garo Hills, 43 East Garo Hills and 30 South West Khasi Hills.

On the other hand, of the 5,15,062 persons who have tested for COVID-19 in the state as on date, 4,90,190 were tested negative for the virus even as 1,055 persons are in institutional quarantine and 4,277 under home quarantine.

There are 1,18,684 entrants from outside the state.

28,211 healthcare workers had received the first dose of Covishield vaccine and 19,422 had received the second dose, while 75,945 frontline workers got the first shot of the vaccine and 26,418 got the second dose as on Tuesday.

 Moreover, 2,31,568 persons from among the general public were vaccinated with the first dose and 28,239 were inoculated with the second dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 across the state.