Cachar joint director of health services Sudipjyoti Das on Wednesday dismissed “rumour” about a resident of the Assam district suffering from novel coronavirus, after a social media post showing the self-reporting form he filled at Silchar airport was widely shared.

Das said it was mandatory to fill up the form at the airport after the outbreak of coronavirus and Faruk Hussain Barbhuiya, 21, who flew from New Delhi to Silchar, declared he had fever, cough and a runny nose. The official said the youth has been kept in “home quarantine”. “A medical team is constantly monitoring his health conditions and he was also taken to Silchar Medical College and Hospital for a check-up. We will monitor his physical conditions for the next four days,” Das said.

He claimed Barbhuiya was physically fine and he was not affected by the coronavirus.

Barbhuiya told reporters he had not travelled to any foreign country and that he went to Rajasthan and then to Delhi en route to Silchar. He said he was contemplating legal action over the social media posts and that he was fed up by the innumerable phone calls made by unknown people as his mobile numbers were in the form.

Northeast Frontier Railway has opened control rooms and isolation wards in its hospitals for keeping suspected coronavirus patients in quarantine. Additional district magistrate E.L. Faihriem on Wednesday ordered hotel owners to provide information on visitors with travel history to the health authorities on a daily basis.

In Meghalaya, the state government said tests on a suspected coronavirus patient at North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences in Shillong had come out negative.

The patient, with travel history to Delhi, had a fever and was admitted to the institute on Sunday, where he was kept in an isolation ward.

Meanwhile, many outlets in Shillong are reportedly running out of hand sanitisers and masks.