A CORRESPONDENT
SHILLONG: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that the State government has been able to double the availability of oxygen cylinders in the state. Sangma told reporters that when the first wave started the state had 700 oxygen cylinders which have now been doubled to 1500.
The Chief Minister also said that the government in the next two weeks would be having 1000 oxygen supported beds for those COVID-19 patients who need them. Sangma also informed that in the next few days oxygen plants will be installed in Tura, Jowai and Nongpoh and in the next two weeks such facilities will be set up in Nongstoin, Williamnagar, Baghmara and Ampati.
The Chief Minister also informed that anticipating the cases to go up, the government has also decided to set up beds which will be run by the community in different parts of Shillong for cases which does not need hospital support.
According to Conrad Sangma, the government had already anticipated that by mid of May the number of active cases will touch around 5000 and therefore it decided to go for a lockdown especially in Shillong.
"If we had not done so the situation would have been much worse," he said.
According to the Chief Minister since even with the restrictions in place yet the rise in cases could not be slowed down even as he said that if this trend continues the cases may touch 7000 to 8000 by the end of May.
He said that the state is looking at a tough situation in the next few week in combination with a shortage of vaccines that may cause inconvenience to the people.
The Chief Minister informed that on Sunday during his conversation with the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan he suggested that there is a need to saturate vaccination for the smaller states like that of the northeast. Sangma also appealed to all citizens of the state, especially political parties not to indulge in blame game.
"This is not the time for blame games or to find fault. But it is a time for giving positive suggestions," the Chief Minister said.
He also urged the citizens of the state to avoid false propaganda that is being spread on social media.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya on Monday registered 16 more fatalities, 634 new COVID-19 cases and 237 recovered from the virus.
With this the total deaths has gone up to 336, there are 4,915 active cases and a total of 18,715 people have recovered from the virus.
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