Shillong:
The Meghalaya government on Saturday announced a two-day total lockdown in capital Shillong from Monday after the state reported the highest single-day spike of 97 COVID-19 cases. Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said that the decision was taken to contain the spread of COVID-19, besides ensuring behavioural changes among citizens to follow coronavirus-related guidelines.
“The government has decided to observe the next two working days – July 13 and 14 – total lockdown in Shillong city agglomeration. The entire city and its surrounding areas shall remain under curfew till 6 am on July 15,” he told a press conference. “The numbers have come out. More than 95 per cent of active cases are from Shillong city. It is important that we check the virus,” he added.
During the day, the chief minister reviewed the COVID-19 situation along with his deputy Prestone Tynsong and Health Minister AL Hek. Sangma said wearing masks at all times, maintaining physical distance and observing hygiene are behavioural changes that everyone should make.
The health authorities have identified clusters where the most number of cases are being detected, he said, adding that these are Khanapara, located close to the Guwahati city, the BSF frontier headquarters here, and the ‘Greenwood wedding’ cluster. “The situation is serious and we will continue with aggressive contact tracing. It is still premature to assume that there is a community spread in any of the clusters,” he said.
The state detected 97 new cases during the day, taking the total to 333. There are 236 active cases in the state at present, officials said.
Deputy Chief Minister Tynsong informed that the government has completely stopped the entry of people of other states. The government will continue to allow our own people to return. We have an average of around 140 people coming in every day, he said.
He said that 95 per cent of the cases in Meghalaya are asymptomatic and do not need hospitalisation.
