BSF residential site tagged as containment zone

Two more border guards test positive
HP NEWS SERVICE
Shillong, Jul 1: Following spike in Covid-19 cases among Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, the area where the BSF personnel are residing at Umpling here has been declared as containment zone. The area falls outside the BSF camp.
Two more BSF troopers have tested positive for Covid-19. With these latest cases being detected, the total number of BSF troopers contracting the virus has gone up to five which includes the wife of a driver from the BSF Meghalaya Frontier headquarters in Shillong.
“The entire Meghalaya Frontier headquarters has now been isolated and also some adjoining areas near the headquarters,” a BSF official said.
Of the two BSF troopers who tested positive today, one was staying inside the BSF camp while another stayed at a rented accommodation. The two are high risk contacts of a BSF trooper who earlier contracted the virus.
In this regard, Health Minister, Alexander Laloo Hek said that State government officials have held meetings with BSF Deputy Inspector General U K Nayal to discuss on steps for tracing high risk contacts of the patients.
“Contact tracing is still going on full swing and as of now, we have identified up to 87 people who are at high risk as they had come in contact with the five BSF troopers who have tested positive,” Hek informed.
Hek also said that the BSF Meghalaya Frontier Headquarters is located in an isolated place and therefore there was no need to declare it a containment area while adding that only the area where the BSF jawans are staying at Umpling has been declared as containment zone.
Meanwhile, Director of Health Service (MI), Dr. Aman Warr said that these two latest cases were part of the high risk contact of the BSF driver who tested positive on June 28.
It may be mentioned that the State government has decided to write to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to put on hold all types of transfers and postings of BSF personnel into the State to prevent spread of Covid-19.
Hek said that out of 19,646 swab samples sent for Covid-19 test, 19,404 samples have tested negative and the results for 189 are awaited.
Meghalaya has so far recorded 55 Covid-19 cases out of which 42 have recovered, one succumbed to the virus while 12 are active cases.
Hek also informed that a total of 19231 residents of the State who were earlier stranded in other parts of the country have now returned to Meghalaya.