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Shillong, Sep. 12 (PTI): The district administration has declared three areas here as containment zones to allow health officials to detect Covid-19 cases and map all influenza like infection (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) to arrest the surge of coronavirus death cases, officials said on Saturday.
The East Khasi Hills district administration has declared Madan Laban, Riat Laban and Keating Road of the state capital as containment zones, they said.
At least three deaths have taken place in Madan Laban area and in Riat Laban area in the past one week while over 35 Covid-19 cases were detected from Keatinge Road area, they said.
"Such deaths could have been prevented through early detection, therefore, in order to prevent further transmission among the susceptible population, early detection through active house to house search of cases, detection of persons with co-morbidities and detection of all ILI and SARI cases in the area is urgently required to prevent further transmission and deaths," district deputy commissioner Isawanda Laloo said in an order.
She said for effective house to house surveillance, complete containment of the area is required to ensure people stay indoors during the active search of cases.
"The survey to identify patients with comorbidities is on," Director of Health Services Aman War said.
The state witnessed a sudden surge in the number of deaths due to Covid-19 during the past one week. The death toll has risen to 24 as five more patients have died since Thursday.
War said the spike in the number of deaths was mainly due to the delay by patients with co-morbidities in reporting to the hospital for medical treatment.
" Covid-19 infection causes principal diseases to become severe. Therefore, we urge such patients to consider taking medical help even if they are having mild fever and cough," he said.
He said the statistics of patients with comorbidities will also be collected from all government and private hospitals including PHCs and CHCs across the state.
Meghalaya had reported 3,447 Covid-19 cases till Friday.