The Meghalaya government on Thursday extended the lockdown in East Khasi Hills district till May 24 in view of the unabated surge in COVID-19 cases.
“We have decided to extend the lockdown in East Khasi Hills district for another one week and that is up to 5 am of May 24,” Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong informed after a daily review meeting held on Thursday.
The lockdown imposed since May 1 was extended on May 5 and was supposed to end on May 17. The decision to further extend the lockdown was taken based on a detailed report about the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the district.
East Khasi Hills, which includes Shillong the state capital, is the worst affected district with 2,121 COVID-19 active cases.
"Therefore, the government has no option but to extend the lockdown for the safety of the citizens of the state," Tynsong said while appealing to all citizens to strictly follow the protocols issued by the Health department.
Asked if the weekend lockdown will continue in the other 10 districts, the deputy chief minister said that the deputy commissioners of the respective districts have been asked to take necessary action depending upon the situation.
Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War meanwhile has expressed hope that the surge will recede by next week. “By next week or the week after next we will see the effect of the lockdown,” Dr War said.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya recorded 18 more COVID-19 fatalities on Thursday, taking the state’s death toll to 268.
Of these, 16 deaths were reported from East Khasi Hills district while one each was reported from West Jaintia Hills district and East Jaintia Hills district, Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War informed.
The state also hit a record daily high with 591 new infections, pushing the number of active cases to over 3,700.
The new COVID-19 positive cases included 318 from East Khasi Hills, 93 from Ri Bhoi, 63 from West Garo Hills, 37 from West Jaintia Hills, 32 from South West Garo Hills, 14 from East Jaintia Hills, nine each from South West Khasi Hills, and East Garo Hills, eight from North Garo Hills, seven from West Khasi Hills and one from South Garo Hills, Dr War said.
So far, a total of 21,576 COVID-19 cases have been detected in the state out of which 3,726 are active cases, 17,582 recovered while there have been 268 deaths.
With 2,121 active COVID-19 cases, East Khasi Hills which includes state capital Shillong is the worst affected district in the state, followed by Ri Bhoi with 502 and West Garo Hills with 352 active cases. The other COVID-19 active cases included 156 in East Jaintia Hills, 147 in West Jaintia Hills, 137 in South West Garo Hills, 124 in West Khasi Hills, 64 in South Garo Hills, 58 in East Garo Hills, 48 in North Garo Hills and 17 in South West Khasi Hills.
On the other hand, of the 4,98,727 persons who have been tested for COVID-19 in the state till date, 4,77,151 tested negative for the disease, even as 793 persons are in institutional quarantine and 2,933 under home quarantine.
A total of 27,545 healthcare workers have been administered the first dose of Covishield and 19,261 have been administered the second dose, while 66,594 frontline workers got the first shot of the vaccine and 26,202 have been vaccinated with the second dose as of Thursday.
Moreover, 2,08,166 persons from among the general public were vaccinated with the first dose and 26,802 were inoculated with the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 across the state.
