Meghalaya to impose lockdown in Shillong agglomeration from July 26 to July 29

Image courtesy: ANI

New Delhi: The Meghalaya government has decided to impose lockdown in the Shillong agglomeration from midnight of 26th July 2020 to midnight of 29th July 2020, following the rising number of coronavirus cases. Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma took this decision to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease.

The Sangma government has also decided to conduct aggressive random testing in 71 COVID clusters across the state, as part of its effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease, a PTI report said.

Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said that the state health department has identified these clusters in 11 districts as "vulnerable" to the COVID-19 outbreak. He is quoted as saying "After considering the present situation, we have decided to undertake random testing in 71 clusters and conduct the tests in an aggressive manner to prevent community spread of the disease."

The COVID-19 tally in Meghalaya climbed to 558 with 24 more people testing positive for the disease on Friday. The state currently has 466 active cases, while 87 patients have recovered from the disease and five died of it.

There are around 30-40 villages in a cluster and the random testing will be conducted using antigen test kits, the DCM said, adding that "Over 40,000 antigen test kits are available in the state and we will arrange 1.6 lakh more."

The state government has reportedly declared seven villages in West Jaintia Hills district, six in East Jaintia Hills, block II of Lumpynngad area in the city and the BSF camp in the Umpling area in East Khasi Hills, as containment zones after new COVID-19 cases were reported from these localities.

The random testing has been conducted in Umpling, Mawpat, Nongmynsong, and Khanapara areas, he said.

Notably, the government has urged over 7,000 Community COVID-19 Management Committees to be part of the random testing programme.