Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said the state was in a “stable” position in terms of the Covid-19 outbreak, as the majority of the positive cases were either detected in quarantine facilities or close contacts of the attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in New Delhi.

Till the filing of this report, there were 21 active patients, out of 34 detected positive cases till date. With the release of three more patients from hospitals, 12 people have recovered. The state has not recorded any fresh case in the past 24 hours.

On Saturday, while two patients, originally hailing from Uttar Pradesh were discharged from a city hospital, another was discharged from Silchar Medical College and Hospital, after they tested negative in successive tests. While the two from Uttar Pradesh will be lodged at an isolation centre in the same hospital, the Silchar patient was sent to home quarantine.

“Since the new patients were already in quarantine facilities, the risk of community transmission is almost nil. They are already indoors and getting medical treatment. Therefore, the state is in a comfortable position as of now but the danger is still looming,” Sarma said.

The health minister, however, asked the family members of the patients, who are already in quarantine, to complete 28 days in isolation. “Though the normal quarantine period is 14 days, we have decided to keep the close contacts of the positive patients for 28 days for extra caution. In Assam, we also have examples where the infection was detected after the initial 14 days,” Sarma added.

Currently, around 12,000 people in the state are in home quarantine and around 1,512 at quarantine centres.

On Friday, at least 35 people, who were under quarantine in Dibrugarh, were also released.

On the other hand, the Dhubri district administration has banned spitting in public places.

On Assam’s testing process, Sarma said it has been testing more people in comparison to many other states.

“In Assam, we are testing 120 people per million, whereas the numbers are less in states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Bengal. Currently, we are doing at least 150-200 tests daily,” Sarma said.

Assam has so far collected some 4,400 samples, out of which 4,199 have tested negative. Reports of 167 samples are awaited. The total number of samples also include those from Meghalaya and Mizoram.

Sarma said, “Now Tezpur Medical College and Hospital has also been added to the state’s testing labs. With this, the state can also cater to neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.”

Assam has six testing labs, including the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) lab in Dibrugarh district.

The state government has also decided to conduct both nasal and throat swab tests from now onwards on a suspected patient. In the state, around 82 per cent of the positive cases did not show any symptoms, while only 20 per cent suffered from fever and 11 per cent from cough, he said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal visited Udalguri district on Saturday to take stock of Covid-19 preparedness and asked the administration to maintain strict vigil along the sealed Indo-Bhutan international border and the inter-state border with Arunachal Pradesh to halt the movement of all vehicles moving without permission.

In Assam, around 1,753 people have been arrested and over 14,800 vehicles detained for lockdown violation till Friday night.

Elderly outreach

The Hailakandi district administration, through its directorate of information and public relations, has started contacting the elderly population, to inquire about their health and wellbeing, in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call.

“The senior citizens and elderly are elated that we inquired about their wellbeing and also made an effort to reach out to them during these unprecedented days,” said Sabir Nishat, the district information and public relations officer. Some of them also spoke about the problems being faced by them, like lack of rations and medicines and the need for treatment.

To ease the burden of the lockdown on senior citizens and elderly, superintendent of police Pabindra Kumar Nath said, “We have stepped in to ensure basic necessities like food directly reach the homes of the elderly.”

A resident in his mid-60s said, “A more permanent and sustainable policy is required to take care of the elderly, who are most vulnerable to a crisis of this magnitude.”

Under the Maintenance and Welfare of Senior Citizens Act, every police station should have a nodal officer to deal with senior citizens, while every district should appoint a special police unit for this purpose.

Additional reporting by Avik Chakraborty in Dibrugarh, Mukesh Kumar Singh in Dhubri and Satananda Bhattacharjee in Hailakandi