Meghalaya govt orders 6 lakh sanitizers, protective gears to fight coronavirus
SHILLONG| March 16:
The Meghalaya government has ordered 50000 personal protective equipments and 6 lakh hand sanitizers as precautionary measures in view of global coronavirus outbreak.
This was informed by chief minister Conrad Sangma while replying to an adjournment motion on Coronavirus moved by Ampati MLA Miani D Shira.
Sangma said that apart from personal protective equipment, Government has ordered 50000 N 95 masks, 6 lakh 3 ply masks,32 ventilators, 6 lakh hand sanitizers and many thermal scanners.
The chief minister has termed the situation as critical with the number of positive cases on the rise in the country.
Sangma said, the transmission rate of COVID-19 is 42 percent and the mortality rate in China is is 4 percent whereas globally it is 2 percent.
He further said that in the past few weeks the government has been closely monitoring the situation of people with foreign travel history screened and control room has been set up and contact number notified and isolation beds done.
Furthermore, Sangma said that the government is closely monitoring the health condition of 74 students of the state who had arrived from China and other affected countries.
"57 of them have completed their 28'days of isolation and 17 of them are still under observation", said the chief minister.
He also informed that NEIGRIHMS has been identified as one of the testing centres and has taken quick steps of preparedness and toll free number 108 activated, 24×7 can be contacted for any queries on corona virus.
Informing that the state has setup 102 isolation wards in the state, he added that the East Khasi hills Deputy Commissioner has also apprised the headman about the Government's preparedness about the virus and similar meetings are taking place in other districts as well.
As far as State Disaster Response Funds utilisation is concerned, he said that in last 3 years, an amount worth Rs 56,58 and 47 crore was utilised.
In addition, Government has also kept a corpus fund of Rs 5 crore for precautinary measures.
According to Sangma, Government is also taking steps to declare masks and hand sanitizers as essential commodity.
