Meghalaya may be forced to impose lockdown if Covid-19 situation goes beyond a certain point: CM

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Monday said the state government has not yet decided to impose lockdown but if the spread of coronavirus goes beyond a certain point then it may be forced to take a call. That is why the government is taking all precautionary measures and requesting people to be careful, the chief minister told reporters after a meeting.

"No decision yet and in all likelihood, we are not going ahead with imposing lockdown as we want to ensure that livelihood of people is not affected," Sangma said.

Pointing out that the government's focus will be on the hospitalisation rate and the people who are in the ICU and those who require beds, the chief minister said, “as of now, things are very much under control and enough beds are available."

Also read: No lockdown in Delhi, DDMA mulls stricter Covid curbs

Given the outbreak of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, Sangma said, the hospitalisation rate in the current wave is not as high compared to what it was in the last wave. Asserting that the government is keeping a close watch on the situation, the chief minister urged people to focus on two aspects.

“One is vaccination, one must get vaccinated and number two is to follow protocols in terms of wearing masks and maintaining social distance as this is a very critical time. This is the time when the virus is spreading and the only way to ensure it does not affect you or your family is to follow the protocols and get vaccinated," Sangma said.

On the rollout of the booster dose, the Chief Minister said a lot of people have come forward to get the precautionary dose. “Our vaccination percentage in terms of the drive that has been going on has also crossed 70 per cent. We are going aggressively in terms of our inoculation drive and are hopeful that we should be able to cover more and more population,” Sangma said.

The north-eastern state on Monday recorded two more Covid-19 related deaths and 70 fresh infections pushing the death toll to 1,487 and the tally to 85,304, a health official said.

Health Services director Dr Aman War said that the fresh infections have increased the number of active coronavirus cases to 448. As many as 83,369 people have recovered from the disease, including 14 in the last 24 hours.

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