Meghalaya: End to lockdown unlikely due to high positivity rate, says official

Shillong, Jun 10
The COVID-19-induced lockdown is unlikely to end on June 14 given the high positivity rate, a Government official said.
Despite one month of lockdown in East Khasi Hills District, the positivity rate remains above 10%. In the last 14 days, the overall positivity rate of tests is close to 12.84%.
Sampath Kumar, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, said containment measures would be relaxed if the positivity rate falls below 10%. Ideally, the rate should be below 5% for the State to consider relaxing the containment measures.
“Now we have seen how the State has got Delta variant which is very infectious. The positivity rate is still higher and during the last 10-14 days, Shillong has a 17% positivity rate,” he said.
The Delta variant is very infectious, and 80-90% of samples are the Delta variant in the State, Kumar added. “We are testing more so that through these tests what happens is that even if there are any cases we can isolate them. If we are not testing the asymptomatic cases will keep infecting others and all of a sudden you will find a large number of people infected,” stated Kumar.
Meghalaya on Thursday recorded 603 active cases with 427 new recovered cases. The State’s death toll stands at 704. As of today, the total positivity rate stands at 12.36%.
Courtesy EastMojo