Shillong, July 29:
Brief
– East Khasi Hills is seeing steep rise in Covid-19 cases in the past few days
– 57% of cases are from urban areas; 43% from rural areas
– Localities or villages with over 10 cases to get special attention and undergo intensive active surveillance and random testing to detect silent carriers
Full Report
In order to swiftly trace and contain the surge in Covid-19 cases in the district, the district administration of East Khasi Hills district administration has decided to conduct random testing to detect ‘silent carriers’.
As of date, 57 percent of the cases are from the urban areas and 43 percent are from the rural areas.
East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, Isawanda Laloo on Thursday chaired a meeting of the District Task Force on Covid-19 and Vaccination in her office which micro-analyzed data on area-wise distribution of cases, number of deaths and vaccination coverage.
After the meeting, Laloo said most cases in the district are reported from select clusters.
“Hence it was decided that localities or villages with more than 10 cases require special attention and would undergo intensive active surveillance and random testing to detect silent carriers,” she said.
New measures
– Localities or villages with more than 10 cases require special attention and would undergo intensive active surveillance and random testing to detect silent carriers.
– Macro containment zones would be declared in areas showing a worrying trend of cases and deaths in order to carry out effective surveillance and prevent more deaths.
– Strict enforcement of locality wise containment and rigorous testing in that area will be carried out.
– In view of high transmissibility of the infection, it is required to encourage institutional isolation of positive cases in cases where home isolation is not feasible.
– Both Corona Care Centres (CCC) and Community Corona Care Centres are available in the urban and rural areas.
– In cases where the number of family members is high or there is not enough space for home isolation, institutional isolation will be mandatory.
– The Chairman has requested the headmen body to help encourage institutional isolation.
– Persons who display mild symptoms/ Category B patients would also be asked to go to the CCC for better monitoring of their health conditions.
– Need to ensure timely treatment by early presentation to hospitals after the onset of symptoms. For this purpose, people would be encouraged to inform if they have symptoms, and not have any fear or misconception about the disease.
– Active awareness and steps will be formulated to do away with the stigma attached to the disease especially in rural areas.
– The meeting emphasized on urgent vaccination as the only way to stop the cycle of infection, and pave the way to normalcy especially for livelihoods and education, which have been badly affected.
– All stakeholders including government officials, CSOs, community and faith leaders will be roped in to intensify the vaccination drive.
