Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K. Sangma has tested “negative” for Covid-19, but is back in politically fragile Manipur on Tuesday.

Conrad had visited Manipur on Sunday to meet the four disgruntled National People’s Party (NPP) legislators who had pulled out from the BJP-led government, resulting in political uncertainty in the state.

Conrad, who is also the national president of the NPP, returned to Meghalaya on the same day, and his swab samples were taken for testing.

Health minister A.L. Hek on Tuesday said the test reports of the chief minister had come negative.

“The test results of the chief minister came negative, and the health department has given him the certificate that he can rejoin work. He has gone to Manipur maybe for his personal work,” Hek told reporters.

Hek added that if anybody goes and returns to the state the same day, they have to provide swabs for testing.

“After being found negative, they will be allowed to resume work. But they cannot go out while the test results are still awaited and have to be quarantined at home,” the health minister said.

He said this is the general protocol, which has to be followed by everyone.

Hek said so far, Meghalaya has 4 active cases, while 41 patients have recovered from Covid-19 and one patient has died.

He also said 16,931 samples have so far been sent for testing, of which, 16,585 have tested negative while the results of 300 samples were awaited.

Meghalaya has two testing centres in Shillong and Tura.

The health minister said till date, 17,692 citizens have returned to the state from different parts of the country.