Shillong, August 16: Meghalaya Chief Minister Mr Conrad K Sangma on his address at the 74th Independence Day, at Polo Ground Shillong said that the COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted economic and social life like never before.
“I take this privilege to convey my heartfelt greetings to all the people of Meghalaya. Friends, all of us know that this is an unusual year and we are living through unprecedented times. The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted economic and social life like never before. It necessitated drastic measures like a forty-day national lockdown and the most stringent travel restrictions”.
Mr Cornad mentions that Societies across the world are adapting to new norms of social distancing, staying indoors and conducting interactions remotely. In these testing times, we take inspiration from our freedom struggle and recollect with gratitude the contributions of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in building our great nation. We are also proud of the contributions of the patriots of our own State, U Tirot Sing, U Kiang Nangbah, Pa Togan Sangma; and of their selflessness and steadfast devotion to the cause of freedom.
Mr Conrad said that let us commemorate our freedom fighters and let us re-dedicate ourselves to the service of our State and our Nation. 2. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused loss of lives and well-being and led to wholesale disruption of the economies across the globe. During these difficult 2 times, Meghalaya has been a beacon of hope and made a place for itself in the national and global mind space.
The Chief Minister said that Meghalaya is amongst the lowest COVID impacted States in the country in terms of number of cases. Currently, with a total of 1,228* cases, we have the lowest number of cases per million population amongst all Indian States and union territories barring Lakshadweep.
This is a matter of great pride and we all should take a moment to congratulate ourselves on this achievement. 3. This achievement is a result of consistent, systematic and unwavering efforts of the frontline health workers, the community and the Government. The night of 13th April 2020, when the first case was detected in the State remains a testimony to this.
Overnight, the entire state machinery was activated, helplines were set up, online portals were channelised, health workers were mobilised and as a result, we were able to locate and isolate over 5,000 potential primary contacts. The health department, the district administrations, the police personnel, the sanitation workers and citizen volunteers worked tirelessly to ensure that the spread of the virus was contained.
This was also the time when a large number of the people of our State were stranded in different parts of the country and needed support. The Government acted swiftly to provide relief to over 10,000 such stranded citizens and transferred an amount of Rs. 3,000 each to their bank accounts.
Once the lockdown eased, we started the process of bringing all our people back to the State. We were receiving distress calls from Kerala to Kashmir, and from Ahmedabad to Aizawl. In less than three weeks, we arranged 13 special trains from Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Goa, Rajasthan, Gurugram, Gujarat and Kerala to ferry our citizens back home.
Over 100 buses and other vehicles were also deployed to bring back the citizens who were stranded in the North East. The State not just paid for their travel to their homes, but also took utmost care to ensure their safety and health. 6. Post the opening up of limited air and rail travel, more people started returning to the State.
The total number of people who returned to the State stands at over 27,000. We have a very rigorous protocol to ensure that every returnee is registered, tested and quarantined for the mandatory period of 14 days. Government has developed technology platforms and deployed IVRS calling systems to monitor the returnees right from the time they enter Meghalaya.
In addition, follow up calls and home visits by grassroot workers including the ASHAs, ANMs and Anganwadi workers are made mandatory. In total, Over Seven Lakh IVRS calls were made and another 84,453 home visits were done by the frontline workers.
The Government also ensured that provision kits consisting of necessities like food, sanitary products and medicines were delivered to every quarantined household. Till date around 29,000 such Provision Kits have been distributed.
The Government has utilised the last four months to ramp up its health infrastructure for combating COVID. We are equipped with around 1,500 dedicated COVID beds. We also have 32 dedicated ventilators, 80 BiPap Machines and over 2,56,000 Personal Protective Equipments. Our testing capacity has dramatically improved.
From 30 tests per day in April, we have scaled up our daily testing capacity to almost 1,000 RT-PCR tests. We now have 12 testing centres spread across nine districts of the State. The remaining two districts will also be provided with testing facilities very shortly. 8. Another significant aspect of our COVID management strategy was the setting up of high-quality institutional quarantine centres.
Mr Conrad thank the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for voluntarily offering its new campus at Umsawli to be converted into Corona Care Centre. This is one of the largest Corora Care Centre in the region with 258 rooms with attached toilets. Across the State, we have 2,700 beds for quarantine. I compliment the fantastic services being provided by the health department staff and the various government and nongovernment staff working tirelessly to run these centres. The cleaning staff, in particular, deserve our special gratitude.
The services at our quarantine centres have been recognised and appreciated through hundreds of letters, posters and social media posts. 9. In addition to the government run quarantine centres, we also have over 1,200 Community Quarantine Centres which are set up and fully managed by the communities. Government is supporting these active centres through a grant of Rs. 10,000.
The Community Quarantine Centres and COVID Management 5 Committees in each village and locality is a huge success story of Meghalaya’s COVID response. It is also a testimony to the communitarian and caring ethos of the State and has been lauded by the ‘World Health Organization.’
Chief Minister thank and acknowledge the leadership of all our community leaders including the Rangbah Shnongs, the Dorbors, the Nokmas and the youth. The exemplary fearlessness and sensitivity displayed by leaders like Bah Borlik Suting, the Rangbah Shnong of Mawtharia- Pomlakrai village, the first rural area to have a COVID positive case, is worth highlighting.
Continuing the model of community engagement, the government has recently set up Behavioural Change Management Committees (BCMC). These committees will build citizen capacity to deal fearlessly with COVID and will particularly focus on protecting the elderly and persons with comorbidities.
Mr Cornad also thank all those who contributed about Rs. 9.5 Crore to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Your contributions have helped us acquire 45 ambulances, three bio medical waste vans and take up other relief efforts.
