Conrad Sangma confirms presence of COVID-19 delta variant in Meghalaya

SHILLONG: Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma has confirmed that the highly infectious 'Delta' variant of the COVID-19 has now been detected in Meghalaya.

"We are seeing that the situation is different in different districts and now we are definitely seeing after doing the genome sequence of a large number of samples that this is more of a delta variant that we have which is a very highly infectious and high spreading variant," he said.

"Therefore, we have seen the spread that is taking place throughout the state. We are now seeing that the spread is happening in other districts as well. We have seen three districts like West Garo Hills, West Jaintia Hills - which have crossed and touched about 70-80 cases on an average in the last few days," Sangma further added.

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He said that the Covid cases again crossed 600 on Thursday while recoveries have been less than 500.

"We will have to observe in the next few days and see how the strategy goes and make sure that the rural areas and rural infrastructures are also equally prepared for the situation," the chief minister said.

Sangma said that the government will take a call on the ensuing lockdown "seeing the trend and seeing the reports that we get from the deputy commissioners."

Yesterday, Meghalaya reported 603 more cases of COVID-19, while 10 more succumbed to the disease. To date, Meghalaya has reported 40,586 cases and 704 deaths. The state presently has 5,015 active cases of COVID-19.

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