Meghalaya secretariat to be sanitized in two days, after 6 employees test positive for COVID-19

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 4, 2020

The state government has ordered complete sanitization of the state secretariat and its additional building from Saturday, after six employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

“We have decided to go for a complete sanitization of the two buildings – state secretariat and additional secretariat, for two days starting from tomorrow,” Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong told reporters after a review meeting held on Friday.

He informed that altogether, six COVID-19 cases were detected in the state secretariat, after reports of three more employees turned positive today.

Tynsong also informed that these employees are those from the Finance department, Law department and Information & Public Relations department.

“The offices of these departments have already been sealed to ensure that the spread of the virus is contained,” he said adding that micro containment is in place as sealing of entire building is not an option.

Asked, the deputy chief minister said that contact tracing is ongoing and so far, 65 people have been identified as high risk cotnacts of the positive employees, of which 35 have tested negative for coronavirus.

On whether the government would conduct random antigen test on all employees of the different departments in the secretariat, Tynsong however said, “We will take a call on the next step to be taken on this regard.”

Meanwhile, the state government has also requested people not to visit the state secretariat and its additional building, for one week.

“Except for unavoidable official works, we request all concerned persons not to visit these two buildings with effect from September 7, as we want to ensure there is no further spread of the disease,” Tynsong said.