Shillong, May 26: As Meghalaya continues to report massive surge in COVID-19 cases on daily basis, the state government is trying to meet this challenge by increasing its capacity to treat the Corona patients. Towards this direction, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday inspected the buildings at three locations in Shillong that have been identified by the government for conversion into makeshift Corona Care Centres, that will add atleast 205 beds to the existing capacity of the state in handling COVID-19 cases.

The Basic Training Centre (BTC) located at Malki has a capacity for a minimum of 100 beds. The main building and women’s building of the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) at Rynjah will be converted into a corona Care Centre to handle male and female covid patients separately; the buildings have a combined capacity of around 45 beds. The District Commerce and Industries Centre (DCIC) at Nogrim Hills can accommodate around 60 beds.

Inspected the Basic Training Center at Malki that will be converted into a makeshift Corona Care Centre to handle #Covid cases. The Centre can house over 100 patients & will be provided with oxygen concentrators. Team instructed to take care of the required infra@drharshvardhan pic.twitter.com/C6IoJ0mZd7

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) May 26, 2021

All the three locations have the capacity for expansion to accommodate more beds in the future. The Corona Care Centres will be equipped with oxygen cylinders and concentrators to cater to the needs of covid patients.

The Chief Minister has instructed officials to take immediate steps to handle the necessary infrastructure and manpower needs in the facilities.

Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister held a meeting with Deputy Commissioners via video conference (VC). In the meeting, the Chief Minister instructed officials to intensify vaccination efforts by selecting vulnerable locations and adopting a saturation strategy.

Officials have also been advised to take on mobilisation at the grassroot level by involving members of the community especially in vulnerable locations.

Stating that vaccination is the main strategy in the fight against COVID the Chief Minister also instructed officials to take a target based and focused approach and intensify monitoring in every district.