Meghalaya to conduct aggressive random testing across 71 Covid clusters

Shillong, July 24 (PTI): The Meghalaya government will 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 minister said.

The state health department has identified these clusters in 11 districts as “vulnerable” to the Covid-19 outbreak, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said.

“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,” he said.

The Covid-19 tally in Meghalaya climbed to 558 with 24 more people testing positive for the disease on Friday.

The state now has 466 active cases, while 87 patients have recovered from the disease and five died of it.

The minister said there are around 30-40 villages in a cluster and the random testing will be conducted using antigen test kits.

“Over 40,000 antigen test kits are available in the state and we will arrange 1.6 lakh more,” he said after a review meeting on Thursday.

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

He said the random testing has been conducted in Umpling, Mawpat, Nongmynsong and Khanapara areas.

The minister said the government has urged over 7,000 Community Covid-19 Management Committees to be part of the random testing programme. The government has also expressed gratitude to all the health workers for their services during the Covid-19 crisis.