Shillong, June 18: Meghalaya on Friday witnessed its Covid cases jump to 650, the most in recent times. The cases have been steadily rising since Monday after recording 305 caseload on June 13.
On Monday the caseload was 403, on Tuesday – 450, Wednesday – 495, Thursday – 478, and Friday – 650. Also worrying the fact that the recoveries have been less in comparison to the new cases, putting significant load on the health system this week.
It is to be mentioned here that the state government has allowed 20 per cent of non-essential shops and services in 10 of the 11 districts in the state since Monday this week, whereas East Khasi Hills remains under lockdown.
However, new cases are rapidly rising in rural areas.
On Friday, 220 cases were detected in East Khasi Hills, 109 – West Garo Hills, 101 – West Jaintia Hills, 92 – Ri-Bhoi district, 47 – East Garo Hills, 25 – South West Khasi Hills, 19 – South West Garo Hills, 18 – South Garo Hills, 08 – East Jaintia Hills, 07 – North Garo Hills, and 04 – West Khasi Hills.
The day also recorded 431 recoveries and 09 deaths.
The current spate of cases has pushed state’s total cases till date to 44,382, of which 4,819 are active cases.
Vaccination picks up pace
Meanwhile, the silver lining for the state is that it was drastically intensified its vaccination drive this week and the people are coming in droves to get vaccinated.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had on Thursday mentioned on his twitter handle that 17,172 jabs were given on Thursday of which 10,000 were administered in East Khasi Hills alone. Whereas, in five days prior to that, almost 50,000 jabs were administered. This takes the total jabs to over 67,000 is just 6 days.
Health Minister, A.L. Hek on Friday said it was heartening to see people coming forward to take vaccine and stressed that people are well motivated and confident about the vaccine now.
Time and time, the government has stressed that vaccination is the only way to fight the Covid-19 virus effectively which otherwise keeps finding ways to infect people irrespective of the severity of containment measures.
