An 82-year-old doctor, VP Sinha, became the latest fatality due to Covid-19 in Meghalaya, the Health Department informed today.
Dr Sinha, of Laban, was admitted to Military Hospital on November 21, tested positive for the virus the same day and passed away on November 30. Cause of death was severe pneumonia with respiratory failure due to Covid-19 with coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
His is the 112th fatality from the disease recorded in the state and the 93rd in East Khasi Hills alone. The district’s fatality rate has inched upwards to 1.31 percent, while the state-wide fatality rate hovers around 0.94 percent.
Meanwhile, there were 65 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Meghalaya, along with 158 recoveries today.
Of the new cases 36 were in East Khasi Hills, 16 in East Garo Hills, seven in West Garo Hills, three in South West Garo Hills, two in South West Khasi Hills and one in West Jaiñtia Hills.
These were the first new cases in South West Khasi Hills since November 10 and ended a streak of 10 days where the district had no positive cases on record. The two detected were both high-risk contacts.
In East Khasi Hills four were health workers and there were several from various clusters, including Nongrim Hills (four), Nongrah (two) and Demseiniong (two). In East Garo Hills five were detected in the Williamnagar State Bank of India cluster, with the other 11 all being high-risk contacts.
Of the recoveries 70 were reported from West Garo Hills (44 from the Cherangre cluster alone), 65 from East Khasi Hills, eight each from East Jaiñtia Hills and South Garo Hills (all Siju cluster), four from Ri-Bhoi and three from South West Garo Hills.
In all, Meghalaya has had 11,875 Covid-19 cases, of which 669 are active, 11,094 have recovered and 112 have died from the virus. The recovery rate is 93.42 percent and the death rate 0.94 percent.
The Health Department also informed that around 1,900 Covid-19 tests were carried out in the past 24 hours, the highest figure reported since October 16.
