Shillong, July 26:

Brief

– Meghalaya is seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases
– Meghalaya government believes this could be the onset to 3rd wave
– Government will strike a balance between containment measures and livelihood activities

Full Report

Meghalaya is caught in a difficult situation as its daily caseload of Covid-19 cases doesn’t seem to come down from the average of 450-500 despite nearly three months of lockdown measures in the state, especially for East Khasi Hills district. Instead, of late, the cases are rising to touch the figure of 600 and beyond.

The major issue is that the economy of people is crippled by the strict containment measures but the new surge in cases seems to be signaling the arrival of the third wave of Covid-19. If the cases spike any further, chances are that government may impose complete lockdown, which could spell disaster for people struggling to make their ends meet.

Health Minister AL Hek on Monday said people need to be ‘very careful’. “If this kind of spike is taking place, it is clearly indicating that the third wave is coming,” he told reporters.

He said government is monitoring and studying the situation. If the situation worsens, he said the government will have no other option but to go for a total lockdown to contain the spread.

569 new cases were detected on Monday while the total active cases have jumped to 5084. The total death tally has reached 1031.

Need to strike balance

He said livelihood activities of the people will be taken into consideration while taking any future decision.

“No doubt health is very important and is government’s top priority but the livelihood of the people is also equally important to us. Therefore, there is a need to strike a balance between the two – We have to ensure people cannot die out of starvation and they cannot die due to COVID-19,” he said.

According to him, many people, especially single mothers, street vendors, and daily labourers are facing problems due to the ongoing pandemic.

Committed to vaccination

The health minister said that the government is committed to ensure that each and every citizen is vaccinated and protected from the Covid-19.

“We have so far crossed 40 percent of the population which are vaccinated,” he said while adding that the vaccination drive will continue to ensure nobody succumbs to the deadly virus.

Meghalaya has administrated a total of 10,16,974 vaccine shots to people, with 8,45,671 receiving the first dose and 1,71,303 receiving both the doses of the vaccine.