Shillong, Sep 17 : The Commissioner and Secretary to the Meghalaya government in the Health and Family Welfare Department, Sampath Kumar, today issued guidelines for the management of Covid-19 cases in government buildings.
As part of the guidelines, every government department or administrative unit should designate a Nodal Officer who will be trained in contact tracing and in classifying high-risk and low-risk contacts. Every district will also designate a Medical Officer (separate from the District Surveillance Officer) who will be responsible for government offices. Large establishments like the Secretariat will have their own Medical Officer.
Medical Officers will liaise with the Nodal Officer and impart training to department staff on ‘behaviour change management’. They will also determine whether to close offices if there has been a large enough outbreak of Covid-19.
The guidelines also specified how to classify contacts of Covid-positive patients. A high-risk primary contact, for example, will have shared the same workspace or who travelled in the same vehicle and come in close proximity (within one metre) of the positive person without precautions for a significant time.
High-risk contacts who test positive will be treated as per existing protocols. Those who test negative will have to self-isolate for seven days.
