The Covid-19 numbers in the state are improving every day but there is no room for complacency, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said today.
At 577.86, the average number of infections (on a seven-day basis) is now the lowest it has been in Meghalaya since May 17. However, they may still be too high to allow the government much leeway when it comes to loosening the lockdown restrictions.
“The numbers coming down are a positive indication and recoveries are going up. But it does not mean we can let our guard down. We will see the trend, like the positivity rate, the hospitalization rate; all those aspects need to be examined. But some sort of restriction will still be there,” Sangma said.
The Chief Minister also said that, with Meghalaya’s financial position not a strong one, it is impossible to help everyone affected by the lockdown, though the government is doing what it can.
In this vein, the government has been releasing funds to MLAs so that they can help their own constituents, it tweaked the Megha Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) to provide more coverage for patients and decided on providing ex-gratia relief of Rs 50,000 to the families who lost relatives to Covid since April 1 this year.
He also said that the government has tried to limit the impact of a lockdown by exempting as many important areas as possible, such as construction and agriculture.
Meanwhile, Sangma said that, while vaccine supply issues will remain this month, he hopes to see a big increase in availability from July.
