MLA among 78 tested for COVID-19 in Meghalaya, all negative

Shillong, Apr 7 () Meghalaya Health Minister AL Heksaid on Tuesday that 78 samples have been tested for COVID-19in the state so far and reports of all have come back asnegative.

Among those tested is a legislator and his driverafter they came in contact with a COVID-19 patient in Assamrecently, official sources said, adding that they arecurrently in home-quarantine as a precaution even as theirreport was negative.

The samples were sent for testing to the North EasternIndira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and MedicalSciences (NEIGRIHMS) and all of them have been found to benegative, Hek told .

The state government has strengthened surveillance andcontrol measures in the wake of the pandemic and a total of24,233 persons who entered the state have been screened tilldate, he said.

He said 137 persons came from countries worst hit bythe deadly virus and of them, 93 have completed the 28-dayobservation.

A total of 2,218 people are currently under self-quarantine in the state and 1,471 have completed the isolationperiod.

Hek said the state government is contemplating toshift non-COVID-19 patients from the two civil hospitals inShillong and Tura to private hospitals in case there is asudden outbreak in the state.

The medical expenditure for such patients referred toprivate hospitals will be borne by the state governmentthrough the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS), he said.

The state government has also set up isolationfacilities of 500 beds at the two hospitals.

Hek chaired a meeting with representatives of privatehospitals in the state on Monday, besides those of thehospitals run by the BSF and others.

The cancer-wing at the Shillong Civil Hospital hasalso been converted into a COVID-19 care centre and a fewpeople are being quarantined there, the minister said. JOPSOM SOM