Covid-19 cases in Assam shot up to 26 after one more positive case was detected in Cachar district on Saturday night, the second case in Barak Valley. The person was found to have attended the Nizamuddin congregation last month.
The Covid-19 death toll rose to 83 and the cases climbed to 3,577 in the country on Sunday after 505 new infections were reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry. The active Covid-19 cases stand at 3,219, while 274 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry said.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed the presence of coronavirus in the body of the 57-year-old former BSF jawan. He is a resident of Cachar district. It was the first coronavirus-infected case in Cachar district. Earlier, the first positive case of Assam was reported in Hasanpur village of Badarpur under Karimganj district on March 31.
The infected former jawan was already in quarantine in Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) after returning from the religious congregation at Nizamuddin on April 2 and his swab sample was sent for testing. On receipt of the report, he was shifted to the isolation ward of SMCH. He returned from Tablighi to Cachar on March 19.
Cachar deputy commissioner Barnali Sharma said her house had been sealed. The swab samples of all the family members and relatives have been sent to the SMCH for test. The Cachar district administration has booked 11 hotels and lodges of Silchar town for stay of doctors and nurses if an emergency arises.
Meanwhile, two persons who had attended the Nizamuddin event, were traced in Kheroni in Hojai and were immediately sent to a quarantine centre.
The day also saw a private hospital of the city located in the Sree Nagar area undergoing a massive sanitisation process by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) after it was found that the city’s lone positive patient had visited the hospital for at least three days last month for medical check-up.
On Sunday, Sarma visited the 200-bed civil hospital at Goalpara and checked the preparedness on Covid-19 and also enquired about the three positive patients kept in isolation. He asked the district administration to video record the activities at the quarantine centres in the district to maintain transparency.
“Many questions were raised about the lodging and fooding facilities in the quarantine centres. So I asked the deputy commissioners to video record the facilities. The reports that have been coming from the quarantine centres have highlighted that all the inmates are in fact having better food than those outside,” Sarma said.
Minister of state (independent), health and family welfare Pijush Hazarika shared images of the food provided to the inmates of the quarantine facilities in the tweeter handle. “They are being taken care of well, with sumptuous meals. We hope they will be able to return home soon,” Hazarika said.
Taking action against anyone spreading Covid-19-related rumours or provocative content on social media, Assam police have registered some 12 cases in which seven people were arrested. Another 80 people were given proper counselling and over 121 posts were pulled down from social media.
On Sunday, a Facebook post regarding home delivery of liquor in Guwahati was taking rounds. Denying any such development Sailendra Pandey, PRO to the state’s excise department said, “There are no such delivery services present and attempt of such delivery is a criminal offence under the provisions of the present law. The excise department to look into the matter and directed to lodge a cybercrime complaint about fake news.”
Applauding the efforts of Assam police being a first responder of the crisis, Assam chief minister Sarbanand Sonowal on Sunday also announced to provide health insurance of Rs 50 lakh to all the police department personnel.
