Deputy Commissioner, Isawanda Laloo today said that the microanalysis conducted in East Khasi Hills district shows that 80 per cent of the newly Covid infected people are those who did not take the vaccine while about 90 per cent of the fatalities are those people who did not even take the single dose.
Stressing that without community responsibility and equivalent support from the community, the State will never be able to fight the dreaded Coronavirus, she said that frequent lockdowns are not anymore an option since it has adversely affected the livelihood of everyone including the children and youths that have missed their schools and colleges for more than a year.
Stating that the only way forward is getting jabbed, she lamented that while people in other states stand in the long queue for several hours to get the vaccination, people here are still hesitant to come forward and take the vaccine even after it is provided to them in their locality.
“If we don’t act fast as our counterparts, we are potentially in big trouble because the coronavirus is a bullet train while we are still moving at the steam engine pace as far as vaccination roll in our state is concerned,” Laloo said as one of the panelists at the awareness programme on ‘COVID 19- Vaccine –The Way Forward’ organized by the Dorbar Shnong Nongrim Hills and Nongrim Hills CCMT on Saturday.
“We have to have the sense of community responsibility and make every locality the green zones because without it the Government, District Administration including the Dorbar Shnongs alone will never be able to battle the coronavirus,” she said stating that the biggest challenge in the fight against COVID is that people don’t make a rational decision but make decision base on emotions, sociological reasons, religious reason, etc.
She however said that the district administration will keep persuading and supporting the community leaders, the dorbar shnongs beside others in the fight against the COVID 19.
Informing that the delta variant in the second wave of the pandemic is highly infectious and spread rapidly, Dr. Raphael Allya said during the second wave of the pandemic, from April to July, 51573 COVID cases were detected with 946 fatalities. In just 10 days, 83 lives were lost due to the virus which proves that coronavirus is real and not a falsehood that takes lives, he added.
The moderator at the programme was former minister, RG Lyngdoh and panelists included Marco Mikri, Rangbah Shnong Mawlai Kynton Massar, Dr. WK Dkhar retired Joint DHS and Rev Lumlang Ryntathiang.
