Meghalaya- On Monday the Chief Minister of Meghalaya Konrad Sangma held a review meeting to discuss the COVID-19 situation in the state and effective strategies in the improvement of the management of the pandemic up to the grassroot level.
The Chief Minister advised the residents to had returned back to the state to keep themselves isolated for seven days even if they test negative.
He also urged his fellow citizens to abide by the COVID-appropriate protocols issued by the state, to not be complacent in the face of the deadly pandemic, and to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Conrad Sangma cited that the COVID-19 situation in the state as "very serious."
"The situation is very serious and if we do not take the right steps in this point in time, we could see the situation getting from bad to worse," said the Meghalaya Chief Minister after the review meeting on Monday.
He said that approximately 65% of the returnees have been tested positive for the novel coronavirus and urged all the returnees to isolate themselves for seven days even if the RTPCR test results show negative.
The situation, if it continues to remain like how it is currently, will be worse by mid-May, said Konrad Sangma.
He said that even though the virus is spreading very quickly, the only silver lining is that the solution to this is through vaccination which the government is pushing at its earliest.
"As you are aware, the numbers are still high, and we still see the positive rate as one of the highest in the past 12-14 months. Therefore, the situation is serious and different kind of containment strategies have been adopted," said the Meghalaya CM.
Sangma asserted that even as they are trying to avoid a complete state lockdown, several restrictions have to be imposed at least in the Shillong city area.
Konrad Sangma had previously tested positive for the novel coronavirus and on the 26th of April he got himself administered the second dose of Covishield vaccination.
On Monday, Meghalaya reported 130 new cases of the novel coronavirus taking the total caseload in the state to 16,124. One COVID-induced fatality has been reported on Monday taking the total death toll of the state to 161.
Meanwhile, India on Monday reported 3.23 lakh fresh COVID-19 cases taking the total caseload of the country to over 1.76 crores. 2,771 COVID-induced deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours with the total death toll now amounting to over 1.97 lakhs. There are over 28.74 lakh active cases of the novel coronavirus in the country. However, India finally saw a downward spiral in the number of COVID-19 cases with 8.4% fewer cases than the previous day. It is the sixth consecutive day that over 3 lakh cases have been reported in the country.