The health department has sent swab samples of at least 10 persons from Darrang district for tests after they were found to have attended the religious function at the city’s Athgaon Kabarstan Masjid last month.

The mosque has already been sealed and marked as a “containment zone” after three positive Covid-19 patients were found to have attended the religious function there with 100 others on March 12.

In the assembly, there were at least eight persons who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi too.

Superintendent of police, Darrang, Amrit Bhuyan, told this correspondent: “We had received names of 10 persons from the district who had attended the Athgaon mosque function and immediately traced them out. All of them are now undergoing home quarantine as they are asymptomatic. Their swab samples have already been sent for test and the results are awaited.”

The state health and police department continued tracing operation to find out every single individual who had attended the March 12 function at the mosque. Besides those from Darrang, some 49 others from Nalbari, Kamrup, Goalpara and Nagaon districts were also traced and sent to quarantine already. Sources said none of them has so far shown any sign of infection and many have even shown negative results during the their initial tests. However, all of them will undergo multiple tests before being released from quarantine.

Earlier, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the mosque authority had handed over the names of 58 attendees of the function to the state government whereas it was attended by some 100.

On Sunday so far, Assam has recorded no fresh Covid-19 positive case.

The lone Covid 19 positive patient from the city continued to be recovering well. GMCH superintendent Ramen Talukdar said: “The GMCH has only one positive patient who is from the city. All the others are Covid-19 suspects, but all of them tested negative so far. In fact, the latest two tests of the positive patient from the city also came out negative. If everything goes well as per the protocol he will be released after 14 days of isolation.”

Swab samples of 10 persons of Hailakandi town who attended the congregation at Athgaon mosque had been collected and will be sent to SMC&H soon, informed joint director, health services, Hailakandi, Dr R.C. Dwivedy.

Meanwhile, the number of persons under home quarantine has risen to 1,598 with eight new cases on Sunday in Hailakandi district.

Of the 118 swab samples taken, 95 tested negative, including 25 on Sunday.

Five family members of Covid-19 victims are under institutional quarantine. This was stated in a health bulletin on Sunday.

Additional reporting by Satananda Bhattacharjee in Hailakandi