Assam on Thursday reported seven more Covid-19 positive cases, prompting it to requisition all hotels, lodges and government guest houses and inspection bungalows with attached toilets to quarantine people who have entered from outside the state.
The state government had earlier decided to use public facilities like schools and colleges but reviewed the decision in view of the increasing number of patients. In places where attached toilet facilities are not available, public institutions will be used.
With seven positive cases on Thursday the number of positive case reached 86 in the state, 22 of them detected since Wednesday. With 39 patients discharged from hospitals after treatment and two deaths, the number of active case on Thursday was 44.
Since the Centre withdrew travel restrictions on May 4, 18 people have tested positive in Assam, including Thursday’s seven patients who had entered the state using the land route.
So far, through the land route, 6,412 people have entered Assam from other northeastern states and 4,690 people from other parts of the country.
Those who entered from northeastern states were sent to home quarantine as these states are green zones. But those who entered from other parts of the country were kept in institutional quarantine facilities. “So far 1,982 people have been released from institutional quarantine,” health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
He said henceforth people would get their Covid test results on their mobile phones. He also said that from Friday all doctors of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), including superintendents of the hospital, would resume their duties as successive test results of their samples were found to be negative. Many doctors and employees of the hospital were quarantined after two of its doctors and a patient tested positive.
Panic gripped Dibrugarh in the morning after four passengers of the special train from Delhi, which chugged into the Upper Assam town around 7am with 400 passengers, were found to have fever during thermal testing at the station and rumours spread that they were Covid positive. The four were taken to a quarantine centre at Jokai in the district and their swab samples were collected for testing.
The Tinsukia administration brought 98 of the train’s passengers hailing from the district under strict quarantine guidelines after initial screening at the Dibrugarh railway station. All the 98 were taken to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Complex at Borguri from where seven were sent to Sadiya and 27 to Margherita subdivisions. Of the 64 others, 17 were accommodated at SAI Complex while the others were sent to hotels, Sanjeeb Phukan, the circle officer of Tinsukia said. Their swab samples will be collected from Friday. If they test negative, they might be allowed to go home where they will have to remain in quarantine till 14 days are completed.
One youth who de-boarded at Mariani in Upper Assam, was received by Majuli district administration and taken to his home district after preliminary check up and sent to quarantine.
Sarma said Thursday night would be challenging for the health department as another Dibrugarh-bound train from Delhi with 219 passengers on board and a Mizoram-bound Shramik special from Chennai, carrying 625 passengers of Assam, would chug into the state. The Chennai train will reach Karimganj on Friday. Sources said 75 of its passengers are from Karimganj and three from Cachar. Eighteen persons were put under home quarantine in Hailakandi district on Thursday.
He said the swabs of 340 people have been collected after 15 positive cases were detected in the city on Wednesday evening. “If a sizeable portion of them test positive, then all people who passed by Rajkamal Hotel or Alupatti in Fancy Bazar will have to go through testing,” he said, adding that the government had contacted mobile companies to give list of some people.
On Thursday, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, accompanied by Sarma, visited the Sarusajai Sports Complex quarantine centre in Guwahati and inspected the arrangements. The Sarusajai centre with its two extensions has so far provided quarantine facilities to 2,286 persons of whom 1,109 persons have been discharged.
Manipur case: A 31-year-old man from Khurai Heikru Makhong in Imphal East, with travel history to Mumbai, tested positive for Covid-19 in Imphal on Thursday. He and four others returned from Mumbai in a hired vehicle via Jiribam on Wednesday. The others tested negative.
In Agartala, Tripura law minister Ratan Lal Nath on Thursday said a three-member team, led by Dr G.K. Mehdi, head of department community medicine at NEIGRIHMS Shillong, arrived in Agartala on Thursday to assist the health department on Covid-19 management.
Additional reporting from Avik Chakraborty in Dibrugarh, Manoj Kumar Ojha in Doomdooma, Satananda Bhattacharjee in Hailakandi, Vinod Kumar Singh in Dhemaji, Brozendra Ningomba in Imphal and Tanmoy Chakraborty in Agartala
