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Meghalaya Govt distributes essential commodities to quarantined households

By Staff correspondent - 15 Sep 2010 12:00 AM GMT

SHILLONG, April 22 - The Meghalaya Government today said that it was providing small kits containing essential commodities to households under quarantine in the State. Chief Minister Conrad Sangma revealed that the State Government has already started providing the much needed assistance to the households.

�We have covered 600 to 700 households as on Wednesday, and we will cover the total of 4,500 households in the next few days,� the Chief Minister maintained.

The Government is providing food and other items of daily use in the kits to families under quarantine as they are unable to move out to fetch them by themselves.

Sangma said that these kits are being distributed to �encourage and support them� as they are cooperating with the Government by staying at home and are under self-quarantine. �It is just to show our support to them for the responsible manner in which they are handling the situation,� the Chief Minister added.

On the other hand, the State Government has already conducted tests on 1,046 samples out of which 904 samples were negative and 130 test results are still awaited. The active COVID-19 cases in the State stand at 11.

Sangma said all the active cases are stable and all standard protocols are being followed in the treatment of the patients. He further stated that the tests with the rapid testing kits (RTKs) have been kept on hold as per the direction of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). The Chief Minister said that the Government is conducting polymerase chain reaction tests on suspected cases, in addition to the tests conducted through RTKs.

�We will wait for the direction from the ICMR before we resume the tests with the RTKs,� Sangma added.

He also stated that there are at present 64,458 personal protective equipment kits, over five lakh three-layer masks and over 65,000 N-95 masks.

Moreover, 5,392 among the 10,287 registered people who are stranded outside the State, have been provided a one-time financial assistance of Rs 3,000.