Shillong, May 19: Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday cautioned against complacency saying that the State cannot afford to lower its guard as thousands of stranded residents are returning from different parts of the country with the easing of the lock-down.

Meghalaya had registered 13 positive cases of COVID-19 out of which 12 people have recovered while the state’s first patient died after being infected with the deadly virus.

Stating that Meghalaya is officially a COVID-free State now with the 12th positive patient having recovered on Monday, Sangma said, “It does not mean that the government would sit down assuming that everything is over.”

“The state needs to be mentally prepared for any eventuality,” the Chief Minister told journalists after a review meeting.

Underscoring that Maintaining that testing and proper quarantine is the key to ensure that the situation does not go out of hand, Sangma said the government is monitoring the situation and multiple tests are being done at different levels, even as he iterated that all safety protocols would be strictly adhered to.

Stating that the state was facing a challenging task with a large number of people, mostly from red zones in the country, returning, Sangma said, “Continuous monitoring of the returnees is being done. It is important to be prepared and to plan well and the involvement of everybody, right from the government to the community and the individual will help.”