Shillong, July 13: Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has stressed the need of increasing vaccination in the state to reduce positivity rate.
The chief minister presented the status of Covid cases in Meghalaya during the virtual meeting of the chief ministers of the Northeast chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has expressed concern over high positivity in some districts.
The meeting was also attended by other union cabinet ministers and officials.
In a video message after the two-hour meeting, the chief minister said the government will have to vaccinate 20,000 to 25,000 people per day to reduce the positivity rate at the earliest.
He made an appeal to MLAs, headmen and the religious leaders to encourage people to take vaccine.
‘In some districts, the positivity rate is below 10 per cent but in two districts, it is 10 per cent above”, the chief minister said.
Addressing the chief ministers, the prime minister expressed his worry over the growing number of cases in some districts and stressed the need to catch these signals and take strict actions at the micro level. He reemphasized the use of micro containment protocol in dealing with the situation. He asked to make full use of the experience and best practices gathered over the last one and half years in this regard.
Avoid hills
Acknowledging the impact of pandemic on tourism and business, the prime minister cautioned against crowding at hill stations without observing proper precautions. Rejecting the argument that people want to enjoy before the arrival of the third wave, he said that this needs to be understood that the third wave will not come on its own. He said that the main question in people’s mind should be how to prevent the third wave. Experts are repeatedly warning against carelessness and crowding as they can lead to massive surge in cases. He advocated preventing avoidable crowding.
Today’s Covid count in state
The number of new Covid cases is 365 and the deaths are five. There are 506 recoveries.
The total deaths till date are 918 and the active cases are 3964.
