Shillong: The COVID-19 graph in Meghalaya appears to be on a gradual slide with the State on Monday recording five more deaths due to the viral disease, taking the casualty count up to 669 and 438 new cases of infection adding up to 5327 active cases, which has been on the decline over the past few days, health officials said.
The state also registered 689 more cases of recovery from the viral infection, adding up to 33, 160 recovered cases till date, even as the total confirmed cases till date was recorded at 39,156.
Director Health Services (MI), Dr. Aman War said the new cases of death due to COVID-19 included two each in East and West Khasi Hills districts and another in Ri-Bhoi.
Of the 438 new cases detected, Dr. War said 206, including 28 Armed Force and Paramilitary Force were from East Khasi Hills district, 115 in West Jaintia Hills district, 60 in Ri-Bhoi district, 16 in East Jaintia Hills district, 15 in West Garo Hills district, five in South West Khasi Hills district, three in North Garo Hills district and two in South West Garo Hills district.
Six new cases were also reported from East Garo Hills district and South Garo Hills district respectively on Monday.
On the other hand, active COVID-19 cases in the most affected district of East Khasi Hills, that includes state capital Shillong has come down to 2220, which, health observers feel is a case of “cautious optimism”.
While West Garo Hills had 649 active COVID-19 positive cases and West Jaintia Hills had 638, Ri-Bhoi had 591 active cases and the rest of the seven districts in the state had less than 500 active cases each, as per the latest official report.
Meanwhile, the swab samples of 6,00,888 persons tested since the onset of the pandemic till date, 5,61,732 were tested negative for the virus.
The vaccination drive against COVID-19 has been slowly picking up throughout the state, with the government taking up several measures to combat vaccine hesitancy by also involving religious bodies.
On the other hand, 30, 009 healthcare workers received the first dose of Covishield and 19,585 received the second dose, 91,338 frontline workers got the first shot and 26,558 got the second jab of the vaccine against COVID-19, while 2 80,930 persons from among the general public were inoculated with the first dose and 28 318 persons were fully vaccinated with the second dose, the health official said.
A Consultative Committee for COVID-19, constituted by the Meghalaya Government under the chairmanship of chief secretary MS Rao, has emphasized on the need to seek the services of renowned doctors to disseminate information on the “importance of seeking timely treatment as well as removing misconceptions about vaccination”.
Meanwhile, the state-wide lock-down, which was to have ended on Monday, has been further extended up to 5 am of June 14 next, even as curfew in the East Khasi Hills district has also been further extended for the same period of time, as a measure to check the spread of the viral disease.
