Meghalaya COVID cases rise to 12 | COVID-19 update

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: Meghalaya on Wednesday reported two more COVID-19 cases taking the total number of active cases to 12. State Health and Family Welfare Minister AL Hek informed that the latest patients were personnel of the Border Security Force (BSF).

With the latest cases the number of BSF personnel who had tested positive for the virus is five in the State.

"Both who tested positive today were high risk contacts of the BSF driver," Director of Health Service (MI) Dr Aman Warr informed.

It may be mentioned that the BSF driver, who had tested positive on June 28, was engaged in transporting troopers from Assam to BSF Meghalaya Frontier Headquarters.

Hek informed that of the two BSF troopers who had tested positive on Wednesday, while one stays in the BSF camp at Shillong the other stays in a rented accommodation in a civilian area.

The Health and Family Welfare Minister also informed that the BSF camp is located in an isolated place; and therefore it has not yet been declared a containment area.

"Only the rented accommodation where one of the positive COVID-19 BSF personnel stayed has been declared a containment area," Hek informed.

Meanwhile, when asked if the State government was contemplating to conduct random testing on high risk people for COVID-19, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said that the inputs will have to come from the respective district administrations, like the Deputy Commissioners, the District Medical and Health Officers or the District Vigilance unit.

"The government will leave no stone unturned. Once we receive feedback, we are ready to do that. As of now, there is no input for random testing," Tynsong said. Hek also informed that till date 19,646 samples have been sent for testing till date; of which 19,404 samples tested negative and the reports of 189 samples are awaited.

The State now has 12 active cases, 42 has recovered, one died, total recorded cases are 53. Meanwhile, the stranded residents who returned back to the State till date is 19231.

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