Two more Assam districts — Sonitpur and Sivasagar — recorded their first Covid-19 positive cases on Sunday. Both of the patients had returned to the state recently after the lockdown restrictions were eased by the Centre.

In the evening, three persons tested positive for Covid-19 at the Sarusajai quarantine centre in Guwahati. Two of them came from Mumbai, while one arrived from Bihar.

With one case each in these two districts, as well as seven other fresh cases in Kamrup (metro), Cachar and Jorhat, the state’s Covid-19 count rose to 100 so far, of which 55 are active cases.

“Altogether 15 districts have reported Covid-19 positive cases out of the 33 districts. They include Golaghat, Morigaon, Dhubri, Nalbari, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Cachar, Hailakandi, Karimganj, Kamrup, Kamrup (metro), Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Sonitpur and South Salmara-Mankachar,” said a health department official, adding that around 31,276 samples have been tested across the state so far.

While the patient in Sonitpur district had returned from Calcutta a few days back, the persons infected in Sivasagar and Jorhat had travelled back from Delhi. The Cachar patient also returned from Chennai on Saturday.

Jorhat deputy commissioner Roshni Aparanji Korati said, “The positive cases in Sivasagar and Jorhat had travelled from Delhi with others and reached Assam on May 14. They were all asymptomatic.”

The Jorhat patient, a nine-year-old boy, has become the state’s youngest Covid-19 case.

Already, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had said that the return of thousands of stranded people to the state would pose a major challenge. “It’s a Himalayan task to deal with the incoming of these large numbers of people,” he had said.

According to the Northeast Frontier Railway, till Sunday, more than 5,000 passengers had travelled in the four special passenger trains between New Delhi and Dibrugarh.

NFR chief public relations officer Subhanan Chanda said, “Altogether 567 passengers de-boarded at Guwahati and 887 at Dibrugarh. So, it is evident that a good number of people are availing the newly introduced special passenger trains. Another weekly passenger train service will start from Monday. It will connect Agartala with New Delhi, which will provide connectivity to the people of Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram apart from south Assam districts.”

The Hailakandi district administration has set up additional quarantine facilities to accommodate those coming from outside the state, said deputy commissioner M.N. Dahal.